A Dose of Reality
by Koszmar
Summary: AFTER Thor 2 & all Avenger movies that predate it. Jane & Erik are still getting anomaly readings and send Darcy to go investigate. She thinks it's nothing but software errors until she's sucked into another world. As the universe destabilizes, the Avengers will need to figure out why the fabric of reality is starting to tear itself apart before the universe comes to an early end.
1. Jetlag

The intern—_Ian_, Darcy reminded herself. _No wonder this isn't working out—_shuffled his feet, clutching her carry on like he meant to hold it hostage. They were standing outside of the security check point at the London City Airport and this was fast becoming one of the most awkward breakups she'd ever had to divvy out. She pushed her glasses further up on her nose and gave a tight smile, hoping he would get the idea and hand her luggage over. He hugged it to his chest though and sighed, glancing at a passing couple before looking at her again with hurt eyes.

"You're sure you won't stay?" He asked again, for probably the tenth time since they'd left her hotel room.

"Aw, you know I would if I could buddy." Was it okay to still call him buddy after sex or was that weird? "I was only staying this long for the post portal-craziness-cleanup. You know that. I can't stay here _forever_."

"I could come visit?" He offered the suggestion tentatively and Darcy _really_ wished she hadn't kissed him in the heat of adrenaline; or had sex with him later; then kissed again; and well the sex went on for the few weeks she'd had left, but seriously, Darcy figured she deserved a little Southside TLC after almost dying again. She dared anybody to argue, especially since Jane was sure as hell getting her some good old fashioned God lovin'; Darcy at least deserved _something_ as a consolation prize for surviving another possible apocalypse_._

"Well yeah, maybe." She didn't want to be a bitch about it, but at the same time she really didn't want to get his hopes up either. By some miracle the conversation was ended when the loudspeaker announced her flight would be boarding soon. "Look Ian, I've really got to go. I'll e-mail you or something okay?"

She reached out for her bag, and he gave it over reluctantly, a pout still marring his cute, little intern-features. He hadn't been a bad lay but jeeze, clingy much? It had only been a few weeks and he was following her around like a lost puppy. Woman needed her space! Her ticket out of the country couldn't have come any sooner. Poor guy; he'd get over it though. They always did. Darcy gave him a beaming smile as she shouldered the bag.

"Take care of Erik will you?" He gave a nod and she leaned in for a quick hug, slipping away before he could tighten his hold and try to kiss her. "See ya!" Darcy waved as she turned away from the intern and threaded her way through a crowd of people before hitting the security line. Well, that was done and over with. _New York deep dish here I come._

After the whole alien attacking the world and darkness thingy—Darcy still wasn't sure what it was all about, only that Jane had been pretty freaking vague on the details of what had happened during her time on Asgard—Jane and Thor went back to New York while Erik and her stayed behind to make sure there were no more anomalies. Things had gotten back to normal, whatever that was these days, and Darcy was happy to be heading back to the old U.S. of A. She enjoyed London, but there was just something _missing_, not to mention Ian had been laying it on thicker as each day went by. It was definitely time to head home, or rather in this case, to New York to join Jane and Thor and something about a tower and energy particulates.

As Darcy stared out the window of her flight she contemplated how strange things had become in her life. Ever since the heavy metal-man in New Mexico tried to kill everyone it seemed like nothing was simple anymore. She'd only been assisting Jane for school, but somehow that got extended into getting shipped off to Norway and then London, and somehow she still hadn't qualified for those damnedable six credits. What the hell right? She got the feeling the mystery men in black who'd stolen all their stuff had something to do with it, but nobody at Culver University was talking. Those asshats couldn't even tell her how much longer the internship had left before she qualified for graduation. They were holding her degree hostage and for what, just having seen an alien, tasering him a little, and almost getting blown up? Darcy leaned her forehead against the dirty window, her beany protecting skin from grossness, and let out a heavy sigh. Maybe she should have just gone with a Liberal Arts degree.

When her flight landed Darcy turned her phone back on only to be bombarded with a slew of text messages and several voicemails. Ninety-five percent of them were from Jane, the other five a mixture of Ian, her dad, and one of her old classmates asking about some psych final. Seven missed calls from Jane. That was never good. She wasn't even getting paid for this level of harassment. Darcy listened to the first message while she waited in her seat for the plane to empty.

"Darcy hey, it's Jane. _Great_ news!" There was a long stream of scientific babble after that, the kind that made Darcy want to cross her eyes and give up this foolish notion of graduation. There was always McDonald's. "So after I sorted out the algorithms it all just came together. I really think we're going to have a breakthrough really soon! Call me when you land!"

She deleted the message and closed her eyes as the second one started. "Darcy hey, it's Jane. It turns out I forget to account for possible loop quantum gravity. Disregard the last message."

Delete. Next message. "Darcy hey, it's Jane…" She went through four more messages about project progress and failures until at last one of the messages made her sit up and shake her head. "Darcy hey, it's Jane. I was looking through some of the printouts here and noticed some of equations didn't match up with the radial levels. I was—" Blah blah, scientific garble. "—Erik confirmed and needs you back stat. He refuses to leave his apartment with pants and there's been some problems with the police and Ian isn't answering his phone. We need you to check out some of the locations and see if these are really anomalies or just false data readouts. I've already got you a ticket. Call me when you land!"

"What! No!" Darcy groaned. Her ass was already numb from the flight, the idea of turning around and doing it all over again was deplorable—oh yeah, 19 points in Words with Friends, take that Lynn. She dialed Jane.

"Hey!" Her boss answered, and Darcy could hear the woman tapping away at the keyboard. "Did you get my message? I e-mailed you the flight information already."

"Jane I just landed!" Darcy whined. "You can't _really_ expect me to just hop on another plane back to Her Majesty's island!"

"Of course not." Jane answered then said nothing more, the typing continuing now at a furious pace.

Darcy waited a full minute before clearing her throat, "Jane, hello? Of course not: so I don't have to go right?"

"Oh, no, no, there's a three hour layover till the flight out. Plenty of time for a snack and land based bathroom break. I've already had the equipment you need shipped back priority so it should be there a day or two after you get there. It's going to Erik's. Oh, and Thor says hello! Call me when you get there so I can forward you the coordinates! Bye!" Jane hung up the phone before Darcy could get another word in.

"_What_ has my life become?" She asked the empty seat next her to. Darcy was beginning to feel like a jetsetter, only without the jets or money or glamor. Okay so maybe not a jetsetter, but what the hell else could you call somebody who was about to spend a consecutive—or damn near it anyway—twenty four hours with her ass jammed into economy seating sized chairs?

Bleary eyed and cranky, Darcy banged her fist against Erik's front door, her shoulders hunched under the weight of lugging her carryon through miles of terminal. She _did_ manage to get in an hour's worth of sleep on the trip back to London, but then some snot-faced kid two seats ahead decided that screaming his head off was a better idea than watching Dora on his mother's laptop. She could still hear his screech ringing in her hears. Momma Darcy was a no go for the immediate and likely extended future, unless of course somebody invented an infant ball-gag that wasn't all shades of illegal. She banged again when nobody answered.

"Erik _come on_!" She complained, hoping he was home and not arrested again for public indecency, "Let me in! It's Darcy!" He opened the door a few moments later wearing nothing but a white t-shirt—was that a gravy stain?—and a pair of matching tighty-whities minus the stains, which was good because otherwise she'd a called it quits right there. Yep. It was good to be back.

The next day the equipment arrived as promised, and as Darcy nibbled on a pop tart she put it together with Erik's help. Whether Ian knew she was back in town or not was a mystery, but she counted herself lucky that he hadn't tried to call her again. That was the last thing she needed on top of the headache of running more tests on supposed anomalies in the area, anomalies mind you, that they'd already spent the _last_ three weeks looking for and writing off as a finished event. She would have betted her Starbucks gift card that they'd find nothing, making this trip pointless and exhausting, and she wasn't even getting any skymiles out of the deal.

Once it was all ready to go Erik shoved the handheld scientific-device thingie at her—did it even have a name?—and started waving her to the door. "Jane has already sent over the coordinates she wants you to check out. I'll keep an eye on the readings here as well."

Darcy smiled at her banana balls friend as she slipped into her jacket, "One of these days you'll have to learn to wear pants again you know, I can't just fly back here every time you need field work done."

"Don't be ridiculous." Erik said, turning away from her to play with the dials on the machine they'd just assembled. "Of course you can. The university is covering the costs." _But are they? _Darcy couldn't help but wonder about that. Private schools never seemed all that generous in the past.

Rolling her eyes, she slipped the device into her pocket. "So not what I meant homeslice. Just sayin', you seriously got to get out more; you're starting to look like Casper, only with more legs and less ectoplasm."

"Just hurry back." The older man urged before getting absorbed with the string of numbers flying across the monitor.

Darcy input the coordinates into the handheld device—it really needed a name, maybe anoma- spectrometer; yeah that had a nice rhymey ring to it—then hailed a cab and started giving them directions. She ended up at the Greenwich maritime museum first, the damage from the final fight with Malek-whatever his name was still keeping most of the area cordoned off. Was a shame really, she didn't have any time to do sightseeing before what with dodging death and keeping Ian's sheets warm; maybe she could find someplace else to go total tourist before heading home again. Her blog was looking mighty bare ever since New Mexico, and for some reason—_cough_-_secretgovernmentorganization-cough_—every photo she _did_ try to upload promptly went missing. What the hell did they have against pictures with debris?

Bundling her jacket up and pulling her hat down a little further to fight off the wind, Darcy strolled around the area with her anoma-spectrometer in hand, the readings steady as she goes which was A-Okay in her book because almost dying once a year was more than enough adventure. For thirty minutes she grinned at all the people giving her odd stares as she shuffled through the broken courtyard, head bowed to watch the data flow, but she escaped the scrutiny after ducking under some yellow tape blocking her way. _In and out, easy peasy,_ she recited as she slipped into one of the buildings.

Broken glass crunched underfoot as she walked past a row of damaged desks and bookshelves. It was crazy to think that just a month ago this place was full of people instead of rubble. _Just goes to show you what crazy aliens bring to the table. Why couldn't they just stick to eating cats or drinking through their fingers?_ After making a complete circuit of the building, Darcy was on her way out when the squiggly lines on her anoma-spectrometer started to spike and the circular thingamajig just below it swelled in size. Right, so that meant something not good.

"You could always just ignore it Darce." She schooled herself, even as she turned back around and started to edge closer to whatever was making the readings go crazy. "Just tell 'em you saw nothing. Erik's probably schlepping around the kitchen by now getting his ravioli on, so really, who could say otherwise?" Despite her vocalizations to turn away and head home, Darcy continued to follow the signal, the spikes getting higher with every step.

A few feet later her phone rang. "Yellow." She answered, still inching onward.

"Darcy, I'm getting high levels of anomalous activity—are you seeing this too? Is there anything there?"

"Yeah my little lines are jumping too, looks the same as when Thor fell—" _Did it hurt falling from Asgard? Is Asgard even above us?_ "—but I'm not seeing anything." She circled around one of the bookshelves. "Maybe it's just a—" She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence when the bottom of her world dropped out from under her feet, blue sky replacing the roof as the walls around her blinked out of existence.

"—Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

Darcy screamed as her arms started to pinwheel in the air. She was definitely not in the maritime museum anymore. In fact she was definitely, probably not even on earth anymore if the glimmering city of gold in the distance was any indication. She didn't get long to check out the surroundings though because she was falling and falling fast. Her phone slipped right out of her fingers, but oddly enough she kept a good grip on the anoma-spectrometer, even as her body went rigid with shock when she crashed down into a roiling body of water.

She slipped beneath the surface, gasping in a good mouthful of water that brought an instant burn to her lungs and filled her with sudden panic. Darcy flailed, struggling for the surface, her limbs heavy from the biting chill of the water and hard to move with her sweater, jacket, gloves and scarf tangling around her body. She broke above the water just long enough to get a single breath in before the waves pulled her under once more. Thoughts were scant as Darcy fought against the current, but somewhere in her mind she noted that Jane would be pissed about water getting on the equipment, and that her lost phone was uninsured. Spitting out a mouthful of sea as she resurfaced, her water laden hat falling over her eyes to blind her quite completely, Darcy only hoped she survived long enough to hear Jane yell at her again.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Just a forewarning really, I just want to say that I have absolutely NOTHING planned ahead so I'm sort of just winging it here. After absolutely devouring a bunch of Thor fics I decided to try my hand at one, but I don't want it to be just entirely relationship focused SO...prepare for impending plot. That said, the plot may take some working cause like I said, nothing planned ahead just yet, only had the sudden urge to write. Mind you, I'll also have to take some time to do a lot of research since I'm not all that savvy with the Marvel Universe.

Also, last warning, this is all rough draft material so please excuse any glaring errors, but feel free to point them out and I will go back and fix stuff. Going forward too, definitely let me know if I have any plot holes or break character for anyone. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!


	2. Wet

If Darcy had to list her top five worst ways to die, drowning would have been number four. It was ahead of exposure, but behind burning to death, getting eaten alive—yeah that's right; zombies were _not_ a joke—and torture (her number one because damned if it didn't have a lot of creative options that made her skin crawl). Still, number four was a solid on the Oh Shit meter, and just now Darcy considered moving it higher up on the list as she choked on another mouthful of water. She'd lost the anoma-fuck all that-the _Jane-device_ in her efforts to stay alive already, but the more she fought against the tides and waves the faster she could feel her body failing as energy leached out of every pore. _I'm gonna die in a thong, _she realized with horror, her choice of undergarments reflecting her previous desire to head to a bar after anomaly hunting. What would her mother think? Hell, what would the coroner think?

For some reason, the idea of some strange person eyeing her undies in a sterile, stainless steel environment gave Darcy the push she needed to burst above another wave and scream for help. It came out a garbled mess, somewhere between "help me" and "please, anybody" and was punctuated by ragged coughing as she choked for air; at best it was probably just a noise, but hopefully a loud enough noise to get attention. She wasn't even sure how far from land she was, but it was the last valiant effort she could make, she knew that much, and if somebody didn't bring a tug boat out soon to save her ass soon she was toast. Darcy thought she heard a motor a few flails later and tried to push her hat further up so she could see, but another wave pressed her down and she gave up that effort when the wet cotton blinded her once more.

The sound of a motor, or some sort of mechanical _thing_, was growing louder with the second and it reinvigorated Darcy with the hope of rescue. "Over here!" she tried to shout above the roaring waves, spitting out another mouthful of water after.

"Ho there!" Somebody, a man, shouted. "Take my hand!" _Easier said than done buddy._

Darcy pushed up at her hat again, freeing one eye just long enough to see fingers dangling a foot away from her face. She reached out to them, missing once and going under with another gulp of sea water, then surfaced with a fit of coughing. More than done with playing in the water though, Darcy strained for the appendage and grasped onto it with both hands, her hat falling down again so that she couldn't see anything as she was dragged up and out of the water, but she _did_ feel the sting when she was unceremoniously dropped into a soaking heap on the floor of the vehicle.

"Twas well I heard your cry." Her hero was saying while she just slumped there trying to catch her breath, her lungs shuddering with every attempt to fill. "What is one so small doing at leisure in these rough waters?"

Darcy tried to talk, choked on water, spit it up, and then tried again. "Huh?" Yep, smooth.

She wasn't entirely sure what her body was _trying_ to do, but Darcy managed to slide forward and flop on the bottom of the vessel—Ship? Boat? Raft? Canoe? Whatever the floating container was that was keeping her head above water—her legs and arms numb and full of jelly apparently. She groaned, decided to stay there for now, and worked instead on moving her hat off of her eyes. It was only when she reached up to do so that she realized her glasses were no longer where they should be. _Great. Those were the last freaking pair at Wally world! Aw shit…and my phone… _When the cloth rose she found herself staring at legs that could have doubled as tree trunks, the muscles bulging beneath fitted leather pants.

There was a sharp intake of breath, "You're not of Asgard. Who are you? How did you come here? What are you doing in the bay? You will answer!"

"Chill out dude," Darcy croaked, her throat sore from yelling and imbibing just a little too much sea water, "Give a girl a break will ya?" With a little concentrated effort to her arms she managed to push herself up into a sitting position, leaning back against something firm. Her eyes followed the fleshy trunks upward to a slender waist, barrel chest and arms that would make Popeye cry with envy. "Holy crap you're a brick house."

The man, no, the _super-buff _man with grey eyes and blonde hair went down to one knee so that they were more level, which was nice because Darcy was having a helluva time keeping her head up. She was bone-deep exhausted without even having gotten boned; so not right. He was frowning at her though and she blinked, sure she must have missed him talking.

"Huh?"

"I said I do not understand your words. Answer me: who are you?"

"That would be a half-drowned Darcy B. Lewis, assistant extraordinaire. Sup." She coughed again after talking, but wiggled her fingers at him from where her hands laid lifelessly on the floor.

"Well Lady Darcybeelewis, how have you come to Asgard? Whence do you hail?"

"Whence?" She coughed again, but the last bits of water seemed to have finally come up and her lungs were feeling a little more stable than before. "Who says whence anymore? And Earth buddy, I'm all gooey-earthy goodness."

"Earth?" The muscleman's eyes darted away for a moment and his frown deepened. "I have not heard of this realm."

"Oh yeah—I mean Middle Earth—no wait—Midgard, yeah Midgard's the place."

"A Midgardian!" He rocked back on his heels and eyed her with more than a little suspicion. "How does a Midgardian find herself here, and why the bay?"

Jeeze this guy asked a lot of questions, but he _did_ save her life so Darcy was feeling at least a little amendable in the interrogation department. At least he was answering some of her questions along the way, however inadvertently. Asgard...how in the fresh hell had she ended up here? She was walking in the museum, chatting with Erik one second and then down she goes. Talk about falling down the literal rabbit hole, although since there wasn't any rabbit maybe it was still figurative after all. She'd think about that later.

"Guess I just dropped in for a quick visit," she answered with a lopsided grin because really, she had no other idea how to answer either question, "and felt like a swim. Forgot to bring the floaties though; I'll have to remember that next time."

As a fat drop of water slid into the corner of her eye Darcy reached up and pulled the heavy hat from her head before her arms collapsed again into her lap. Curled, wet hair sat in slick tendrils along her shoulders, and although it was nice to have the water off of her head the chill sinking into her scalp was more immediate than she'd expected. A violent shiver tore through her without permission, but her lumberjack of the sea just watched like she was going to explode at any second, or maybe pop an alien baby out of her chest John Hurt style. That would be a great first impression of Earthy goodness all right.

"Your words make little sense to me Lady Darcybeelewis—"

"Just Darcy, champ." She interrupted, her full name feeling just a tad informal given that she was half-dead on an alien world and certainly not dressed for the occasion.

"Lady Darcy," He gave a curt nod before standing, his eyes still attached her eyes. "We shall make for port and then the nearest guardhouse. Surely your presence here has not gone unnoticed."

Forcing some juice into her arm, Darcy lifted it in the air and gave him a thumb up, "Sounds awesome dude. I'm just gonna—you know—lay here and drip and contemplate life in the meantime." Another shiver ran down her whole body as muscleman nodded again and turned to handle whatever moved this hunk of glorious _not_ water.

By the time they reached the dock Darcy couldn't _stop_ shivering. Her wet clothes were sucking in the cool air and turning her once warm jacket into something closer to a mobile refrigerator. Too bad she wasn't trying to smuggle beers into Asgard, at least they'd stay refreshing and make her plummeting body temperature worth the discomfort. She wondered what time it was anyway—it was tacky to drink before noon—and went to grab her phone then groaned when she remembered it was somewhere at the bottom of lake Thor, along with Jane's homemade anomaly detector…Oh yeah…there would be some wrath rolling in from the astrophysics department when she got home. Hurricane Jane would be a force to reckon with; maybe she could get a diving team together to find the missing electronics before going back? Darcy snickered at the thought of Thor in a wetsuit. _Almost died but definitely not dead enough to not appreciate _that _kind of visual…mmm…muscles._

"Can you stand, Lady Darcy?" Her hero's gruff voice poked through the delicious visualization and she lifted her eyes up to find him staring at her.

Darcy snorted, "Well let's at least give it the old college try."

She made it halfway before gravity reared its ugly head and forced her to falter, the tremors coursing through her making it difficult to do anything with any precision. Luckily, the He-Man who'd pulled her out of the water caught her before she fell. Leaning against his impressive bicep as he steadied her, Darcy could definitely understand how Jane had fallen so head over heels for Thor. There was something more than a little appealing about muscled men with strange accents and leather clothes, and it seemed criminal that even a—was this guy a fisherman or something? Did they eat fish here?—boating dude had chiseled features that could have inspired a second coming of David.

"Thanks Thor-two." She quipped, making it to her feet.

"You know of Thor?" He seemed surprised by the fact, staring at her like _she_ was the alien or something; although, in retrospect, Darcy supposed to him she was. It was his planet after all. That was a funny feeling, _being_ the alien instead of playing host to one. She hoped nobody around here had the equivalent of her taser ready and waiting.

"Well yeah. He's only hooking up with my boss-lady slash sister from another mister, _plus_ we're like, totally drinking buddies now cause Jane can't hold her liquor and Erik—well Erik doesn't do a lot of things anymore ever since that thing I can't talk about. So yeah, I know Thor a little." She was just a tiny bit proud of the fact; after all, how many earth girls got to say they'd had brunch with a demi-god, or god, or…whatever the hell these people were, and that didn't include all the other trouble she got into with him when Jane wasn't looking.

"We must away to the king then." He said abruptly, stepping off the boat thing—which Darcy just realized wasn't even touching the water, but instead floating above it—pulling her along like she weighed all of five-pounds-nothing.

"Wait, what?" Darcy frowned, stumbling after him as they sped walked down the dock towards towering buildings that definitely seemed to be made from gold. _Guess they were wrong about El Dorado being a myth. Man Miguel was cute for a cartoon though._

"The All-father has decreed that any who have information concerning the prince be brought forth. No more was shared."

"Whoa, whoa." Darcy shook her head, trying to pull her wrist out of his meathook of a hand. "I just wanna go home buddy. Just take me to Homer, or Himer, or whatever his name is so he can zap me on out of here."

"Heimdall?" Her guide/hero/dude who was trying to take her to the king asked with a frown. "I could not take you even if I wished to." He explained, and Darcy was starting to get a really bad feeling about this whole trip. Maybe she'd just ask him to help her find the hole she'd fallen through instead then. "None but the royal family may approach him unless expressly permitted."

"Well what about the portal thing I fell through. How about we just go find that and you give me a boost huh? No need to bother old King Cole with crap like humans falling from the sky. 'sides, I've _really_ got to get back; I bet Erik and Jane are having joint aneurisms right about now."

"Portal?" The man shook his head, "No, I really must take you to see the king. He will want to know of this portal you speak of."

_Way to go Darce, just keep handing him reasons to take you in!_ "Look dude, I appreciate you fishing me out and all, but I _really_ don't want to meet Thor's dad if it's all the same to you. I'm so not into the whole meeting the parent's thing and the guy wasn't particularly great to Jane from what I've managed to weasel out of her."

"I do apologize Lady Darcy but I could not, in good conscience, allow you to leave my sight without delivering you safely into the hands of my king, as per his royal command."

Well that didn't leave much room for debate, and although it sounded sweet and charming, the threat wasn't exactly hidden between the lines there. As Darcy saw it she could either go along willingly and save herself a little dignity, or she could try to hightail it into the city and hope to hell that she could find some way back on her own. Odin or the unknown? Tough freaking choice.

What would Jane do? _Yeah, I have no freaking clue!_ So channeling her inner Jane was out. Okay, so worst case scenario, Odin killed her for being human or something if she went along; if she ran, then maybe getting killed by their version of cops after a nice display of Asgardian police brutality. Best case scenario he'd just send her right on home and close the pesky portal, or she hid in the city and found somebody else to take her back out into the bay to find the invisible portal and push her back into it. Right…

Darcy sighed then shoved her wet hat into one of her wet pockets, ending her attempt to pull her own arm off against the iron grip of Thor 2.0. "Lead the way Jack."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Well this one came faster than I thought it would. Not a lot happens so here so I figured I'd go ahead and put it up, especially since I'm trying to keep each chapter under 3k if possible (although knowing me I'm sure I'll be breaking that soon enough). Hopefully there will be a little more meat in the 3rd chapter. I don't want to say I rushed through this one but I kinda sorta did so there may be a few errors I didn't catch on my review of it, and if so: sorry about that.

Oh, also wanted to mention..I've only seen Thor 2 one time, so please excuse any continuity errors since I'm working from memory here and whatever synopsis's of the film I can find online.


	3. Odin

Now Darcy had been to some snazzy hotels in her time, and she'd been to Stark Tower (now named the _Avenger's_ Tower regardless of the name on the lease), a place that just screamed omg-I-have-money-and-love-toys, but all of that paled in comparison to how elegant, beautiful and well, gaudy—if she was being completely honest—Asgard was turning out to be. Everywhere she looked was gold, gold, gold, gleaming and glittering as the sun rose higher into the sky, the blue above accented by a couple of planets that definitely didn't seem to belong up there, but what the hell did she know about alien astronomy. Mountains that had rose in the distance disappeared as she and Gunnar—he'd corrected her when she called him Jack—moved into the city. It was all impressive and overwhelming, even when some less flashy structures started breaking through the splendor.

They passed through streets lined with stone houses all old-school medieval style, every sidewalk littered with people coming out to do whatever it was Asgardian's did during a normal work week. Did they even have work weeks; business hours? Darcy was having a hard time deciding where to throw her attention, the sensory overload starting to get to her now that the noise level was slowly but surely rising. _This must be what culture shock feels like._ She opted to stare down at the street as they walked instead, hugging herself to ward off the shivers, although they were thankfully growing less prominent as the day warmed. The street was paved with white stones, and Darcy started to count them as they went along to keep from gawking and wandering off. Five hundred give or take a few—so she got distracted once or twice. _Sue me—s_tones later they stopped at the entrance of what could only be the huge castle-palace-building-place that she'd seen peeking out from somewhere in the center of the city. _Looks like _somebody's_ compensating…_

Her eyes followed tall pillars as they reached up to soaring, golden, arched ceilings, the space between each pillar filled by human-shaped giants in armor. Each one was gilded and intimidating in a way that reminded Darcy of the metal-monster that nearly wiped Puente Antiguo off the map, only more stylish and ready for war. Trying to ignore the memory of fear she mumbled, "This place totally belongs in an episode of Cribs."

"Pardon?" Gunnar asked, looking down at her.

"Yeah I know it wasn't that great a show, but damn did some of those dudes have nice places and this, this place is rockin'."

"You say such strange things." He noted, staring at her curiously.

Darcy grinned and flashed him a wink, "Just wait 'til I get a few drinks in me, then I'll really start the verbal vomit."

"That sounds most unpleasant."

"Eh, Cap said the same thing. Maybe it's me." She pursed her lips in what was supposed to be thoughtful contemplation, but she knew full well it was her. People had told her so her whole damn life. Gunnar didn't have to know that though. He shook his head.

"Come, I shall take you to the guards and request an audience with the king."

Darcy had more than one preconceived notion of how royal bureaucracies worked, so she was a little dumbfounded when they were called into the throne room of Odin-holy-shit-it's-like-a-_god_-god-himself less than ten minutes after their arrival. Gunnar spit into his hand and smoothed the saliva back through his hair, but all Darcy could do was drip all over the floor, her sneakers squeaking with every step as they were ushered inside across the smooth floor.

At least she _wasn't_ surprised at how overdone the throne room was. It was ginormous and—surprise, surprise—gold with more gold and gold filigree on the side. On the floor was some gnarly symbol that could have made an awesome tattoo, but as much as she wanted to ogle the rest of the chamber, Darcy couldn't resist the pull of the man sitting in front of them. Her eyes were glued to his face as they walked slowly up the middle of the room, despite the fact that it was fuzzy and didn't look like anything more than a peach splotch with white fuzz on top. But seriously, she wouldn't have even cracked a freaking smile if he'd a broken out with "I am the great and powerful OZ!" Dude was _that_ impressive, and that was without even being able to see any of his facial expressions yet.

Odin, because obviously who else could it have been, sat on the throne like a man who was waiting for death to come knocking on his door. The closer they got the clearer Darcy's impression of him became, both in the literal sense that she could see him and the less literal sense that hung around his aura. It was a _vibe, _man. But vibes aside, his skin looked wane and sagging, as if he hadn't eaten right for some time, and there were dark circles under his eyes that suggested a severe lack of sleep. He looked wearier than she felt, and that was saying something since she hadn't had this much exertion since running for her life back in Greenwich thirty plus days ago. They stopped a few feet from the stairs leading up to his chair, and Gunnar cleared his throat, plainly nervous. She wanted to pat him on the shoulder or something and give a pep talk, but that probably wasn't entirely appropriate to do in front of a king.

"Speak Gunnar Sindrison. What news have you of my son?" Odin's voice, in spite of his appearance, was strong and firm as it echoed through the room. _With acoustics this good it's a crime they don't have concerts in here. Maybe they do; Thor and the Sons of Odin could be a _sweet_ band name._

"All-father," Gunnar started, and when Darcy looked back up at the throne she found Odin staring down at her, his eyes like hard flint and his expression unreadable. _Killer poker face there, dude._ "I come to you with strange tidings. Beside me stands Darcybeelewis of Midgard. She has knowledge of Thor and mentioned some portal linking her world to ours. I thought it best to bring her to you straight away."

There was a moment of heavy silence, something Darcy really wasn't a fan of because it just brought back memories of awkward family dinners, before Odin's voice boomed, "Is this true, mortal child of Midgard?"

Put on the spot, Darcy's nasty habit of being mouthier than normal flared up, a common side effect of being nervous or threatened. She couldn't help it, she really couldn't. It had led to many fights in her younger years, more detentions than she could count, and one arrest because damn it all if she was going to wait at a broken red light in non-existent 3AM traffic; the cop had disagreed and it had only escalated from there, but she still swore to anyone who would listen that her foot slipped onto the gas pedal by mistake. At least she'd been a minor at the time.

"Um, which part?" She asked before nodding her head and looking around the room, "And by the way, _digging_ the bling, a little over the top but I get it; keeping up with the Joneses and all that."

Both Odin and Gunnar were staring at her the way her mother always did whenever they were in public and she'd say something particularly embarrassing. She blamed it all on her dad; he didn't have a great filter either. Gunnar at least, had enough shame to bow his head and stare at the floor, but Darcy, well, she was about as shameless as they came, so she only grinned up at Odin like they were old pals. Might as well make her first impression with the god of gods a lasting one, right?

"How did you arrive in Asgard?" Odin asked at last. He was taking the high road apparently, and Darcy was a little curious as to why he didn't ask about Thor first, at least until she connected the dots that he was like the president so it was politics first and personal later. _Pfft, politicians really are all the same no matter where you go._

"Fell down the allegorical rabbit hole." She answered, having decided that without an _actual_ rabbit it definitely could _not_ be literal.

"Explain." Odin commanded, the edge of annoyance lining his tone not missed by the only two other people in the room.

Darcy felt one of her eyebrows arch upward, which was never a good sign for her tongue, "Okay well when Malik-what's-his-face attacked with his big ship and all that aether jazz it opened all these freaky portals to other worlds that shit—sorry—stuff or whatever kept popping in and out of. Too crazy, but anyway, after it was all over there were some anomaly traces left over and we—well I, since nobody _else_ was willing to walk apparently—was trying to make sure none of those portal things were still open cause hello, _super_ hazardous, amIright. Guess we missed one though cause _boom_, in I fall and _splash_," and yes, she made all the matching hand motions just to emphasize the insanity, "right into your pool 'til burley pirate here fished me out." _Guess that makes me—wait for it—a _carpy_._ She kept the laughter at her own genius internal of course, the only betrayal hidden in a twitch on the corner of her lip.

"And what of Thor?" The edge was still there.

This part felt a little trickier. Thor hadn't been exactly talkative about what had gone on the last time he'd seen his father, but she got the impression that his relationship with Jane was more than frowned on. Also, something about absconding from the throne or something, but he'd been talking into a whiskey glass so she may have misheard. All she knew in the end was that Thor was on earth and after a few nights of major drinking and celebrations he and Jane had snuck off to New York, leaving her and Erik to clean up the mess. She definitely couldn't tell Odin where Thor was staying, and she even considered lying about Jane altogether. Would he believe it if she said the scientist had died? Trying to buy some time to collect her thoughts she answered with a smile.

"What about him?"

Odin it seemed, had less patience than his son. His fist slammed down onto the arm of his throne, the boom ringing across the room as the king shouted. "Where is my son?"

This time both of Darcy's eyebrows crept upward after she'd jumped in surprise. She lifted both hands in defense, her heart pounding despite the calm across her face, "Chill out majesty; he's cool, he's safe okay? He's on Earth—Midgard—whatever. We're taking care of him."

After a deep pause, Darcy wondering all the while whether or not she'd be hauled off to the dungeons for mouthing the king, Odin turned his stare to the man who had brought her here. "Gunnar, son of Sindri; leave us."

Without another word, not even a goodbye or how's your mother, the man that Darcy had been sort of kind of depending on to get her home fell to one knee, put his hand to his chest, then rose and strode away all in the span of fifteen seconds. Odin's eyes moved to hers again, and they both kept silent as Gunnar's footsteps echoed into the distance until they disappeared altogether. _Holy shit, Thor's dad is totally going to kill me. This is so not how I pictured my day ending…_

"My son," Odin started again, his voice much softer than before, "he is well?"

"Yeah, totally." Darcy answered in a rush, eager to please the guy now that her meat shield had left her high and dry.

Some of the tension he'd been holding seemed to leak away and his shoulders sagged. He looked so much older now; so much sadder. Darcy frowned, feeling like she was missing some essential piece of the puzzle here. Weren't kings supposed to be in-your-face awesome and tall and regal and intimidating as hell? This guy didn't seem to have many more fights left in him. She resisted the urge to give him a pep talk too.

"Does he still court the mortal woman, Jane?"

Darcy bit her lip. What to say, what to say? "Yeah I don't know about all that, never really hang around his love den or anything. You know?"

"I feared…" Odin's voice trailed off, his eyes growing distant. Darcy recognized the look of somebody spacing out; hell, she could _feel_ the look cause she did it all the damn time.

"He's doing good. You shouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure he'll check in with ya soon enough."

Odin's eyes focused again, and Darcy could feel him weighing not only her, but her words. It felt like she was standing trial, but a second later the feeling passed and he gave a small nod of acceptance. "Tell me of this portal."

She was okay with the change of topic, at least she didn't have to lie—or rather _omit_—this portion; she only had to risk sounding stupid instead. That didn't bother her though. She wasn't really all that ashamed at her lack of scientific expertise; her talents were elsewhere. That in mind, she tried to explain it all as best she could using terms that Jane and Erik had tossed around the room like they were playing some smartass version of baseball, only with words, while Darcy played the slow ref who kept calling homeruns, fouls.

"So yeah," she finished with a deep breath, "temporal pockets of energy or something and I just fell through."

Odin's face was pensive as he'd listened to her ramble on, but when she finished he gave another nod. "Very well. We shall take measures to close this _portal_ before more harm can come, and—"

"I can go home?" Darcy cut in, too hopeful to second guess at how stupid it might be to interrupt a god-king.

His eyes narrowed in a, should-I-kill-you-or-let-this-slide, kind of way, and Darcy held her breath until he answered, "Yes."

Without warning, Odin lifted the scepter he'd been holding in his right hand and brought it back down onto the floor, the clear ring of metal on stone resonating across the room like a wave. Darcy's head turned when the door behind them opened with a groan. A solitary figure strode inside, and as the door closed and she drew nearer—bitch was walking _fast_—Darcy could tell it was a woman, but not just any woman. She'd seen this lady before back in New Mexico, one of Thor's friends although she couldn't come up with a name. Long brown hair, strict eyes and an outfit straight out of Tolkien's brain; this was the chick willing to face down a metal monster.

"Lady Sif," Odin called out as the woman reached Darcy's side. The warrior-woman fell to a knee and put a fisted hand to her chest just as Gunnar had. "You will escort this mortal to Heimdall so that he may return her home."

"As you wish, All-father." She answered, rising up to her feet again before looking at Darcy. "Follow me."

Darcy sure was getting tired to being bossed around; she got enough of that with Jane and Erik, and now she could add aliens to the list of people who didn't seem to care about her opinion or thoughts. Still, she wasn't really in a position to argue, what with the offer to take her home extended already, so she nodded, following after the woman who started walking away not a second later. Darcy gave one last backward glance to the king who seemed so sad before they walked out of the throne room.


	4. Sif

It wasn't until they'd reached the glittering rainbow-bridge—stupid name maybe, but damn was it accurate: looked like a bridge, looked like a rainbow…give the guy on the naming committee an A plus—that Sif decided to speak to Darcy after ignoring all her previous commentary on the way there. The woman was made of stone; didn't even crack a smile at the comment about some dude's plumber crack who'd been bending over a barrel outside of some shop. Ass cracks were comedy gold, and this chick didn't even look over to catch the moon! Darcy would have tried harder, but she wasn't sure it was worth the risk of _not_ making it home. She had leftover Chinese in Erik's fridge, not to mention Erik very well might get arrested if he thought about going to look for her sans the bottom half so it was better she get back as soon as possible if she wanted to avoid posting bail with all that money she _didn't_ have.

"So I remember you from New Mexico," Darcy tried again, keeping it light. They were almost there but dammit silence killed her. She knew it wasn't likely that she'd ever be back in Asgard again, and she really wanted to leave knowing she might have at least made a maybe-friend in the awesome dark ages She-Ra. All she got in response was a glance, but that was encouraging enough. "Yeah you came with those dudes, the samurai, Viking and Robin Hood. Totally kicked ass. You guys are like, besties with Thor right—friends, I mean?"

"Yes." The answer was clipped, but by god it was still an answer. _Progress people, we are _making _progress!_

"He talks about you guys all the time you know, about adventures you had and shit. Great stuff; could made a killing in the movie industry—hey you wouldn't mind me using any of that would you? I _may or may not _like to write a little on the side. How awesome would it be to make some money out of it for once though, eh? He had an awesome story about the time he got so drunk he lost mew-mew; even admitted—after a few dozen drinks mind you, the man can drink sailors under the damn table—that the only reason he didn't call for the thing was 'cause you bet him he couldn't find it on his own; said you won his warhorse outta the deal. You guys seriously still ride _horses _though? Doesn't that chafe?"

Yeah okay, so Darcy was rambling now, but if Sif refused to be part of the conversation then it was up to her to carry both ends. She could do that; hell, she did it with Erik most of the time now since his brain never really fully recovered from the Loki-scramble. "You and Thor talk _much_ then, I take it?"

Darcy's step actually almost missed the floor in her surprise. That was the largest number of words Sif had ever strung together for her! _Who rocks? That's right, I rock._ "Well yeah, I guess, I mean, after the whole elf attack in England we did do a little bit of celebrating over the fact that we weren't, you know, dead."

Sif's eyes seemed to darken, her mouth drawing tighter which was weird because Darcy couldn't think of a single thing she might have said to get that sort of reaction. "Celebrating." The woman spat before glaring down at Darcy. "But no mourning?"

"Who died?" Darcy blurted before she could stop herself. So she wasn't always as smooth as she wanted to be but seriously, nobody likes a Debbie downer and Sif was leaning in that direction which wasn't very healthy for the start of a maybe-friend relationship.

It was hard to read Sif's face now, the woman's stare moved straight ahead as they walked side by side down the beautiful bridge toward the weird building at the other end; gold too of course and shaped like the snitch from Harry Potter, only with a fin instead of wings. "Thor said nothing of m—" the pause was so fast Darcy almost missed it. "—my queen's passing? His _mother_." Darcy only managed to get her mouth open before Sif continued. "And what of the _creature_ he still calls brother; did Thor happen mention _his_ passing during any of the celebration?"

At this point Darcy felt the weight of Sif's stare hit her when the warrior's head turned again. It was dark and intense, a storm just waiting to belt out the first peal of thunder like war drums for some cosmic, aerial battle. There didn't seem to be a right answer and in the few seconds it took for Darcy to decide on what to say a hundred little connections were made in her mind. Jane telling Thor that it would be okay, standing in the dark hallway together when they thought nobody was around. Thor's frequent, far away looks that were bare of even the slightest hint of joy. Jane's sudden bad moods and snappy attitude after Darcy had asked what Thor's family had been like. There were many more; little things, things that were just so freaking inconsequential at the time until hearing some of the pieces that had been kept from her.

The biggest connection was also the one she felt the most stupid about missing. The clock had already passed two a.m. and they had all still been at one of the local bars. The room was full of people, all of them still celebrating the near brush with death. Erik was passed out in one of the booths, his cheek soaking in a puddle of drool and a half-empty bottle in his hand. Ian had gone to the bathroom on unsteady legs almost ten minutes before, so he was probably puking in a toilet or sleeping against it. Jane had said she needed to get some air, but Thor had stayed behind to finish his drink, a look between them saying something that Darcy couldn't translate at the time.

Sitting at the counter next to the big guy she could feel the dark cloud hanging over his mood. She thought maybe him and Jane were having a lover's quarrel or something else sickeningly normal and sweet. Trying to lighten the mood she joked about how he had to be glad that everything was over now. She'd, in some sort of line of thought—don't ask how because sometimes Darcy's mouth worked on autopilot—moved to ask if Loki was seeing a shrink now or if he was just holed up in some god-prison for the criminally insane. To be honest it was a fair question considering how he'd tried to take over the world and all with an army of bug aliens or something, not to mention sending a battle bot to kill his own brother because…well Darcy had never really been clear on the reason and nobody thought it necessary to share either.

Thor hadn't answered her. He got that distant look and wore a smile that, only looking at it retrospectively, she understood was sad. Instead of telling her where Loki was _now_, he started regaling her with stories from his youth, stories where he and Loki, the _better_, less evil and insane Loki, would find trouble and adventure. He made her laugh at some of the things they got into (releasing beasts whose name's she couldn't pronounce into the palace; tricking Sif into a date with the Robin Hood guy, Fandral; sneaking off to woo elven maids or crash dwarf parties; the list went on), and by the time he was finished Ian and Jane had come back, both of them laughing right along with Darcy.

Those stories, with the exception of some hearsay on the news and side comments from Thor and a few SHIELD agents—well okay and maybe a single news broadcast that she had to hack to see—w ere really the only impressions Darcy was given on this guy Loki. He sounded like fun when he wasn't going crazy and manipulating or starting wars, and it was obvious with every story that Thor loved his brother; nothing negative had been said at all that night, not even by Jane who had done nothing but hate the dude for what he did to Erik. She never once heard about Thor's mother though, no stories or even whispers of tragedy.

All of this flashed in Darcy's mind those few seconds she stood staring up at Sif, trying to come up with a good answer that wouldn't make Thor sound like some heartless ass. "I guess—well maybe it was too painful to talk about," she ventured, keeping her eyes on Sif's, "I'll be honest, I'm not really all that perceptive," yeah okay so that was a lie, but it was so much easier getting through life when people thought you were a dumbass, and men love buying a girl a drink when they think she's stupid as dirt. "so maybe he made a comment and I missed it. It was only a couple"—few, several, whatever—"days before him and Jane up and left so, you know," she shrugged, "not like we had lots of time for heart-to-hearts."

Sif studied her for a few moments, but with a silent nod she turned away again and seemed content with that answer. _Damn straight she is. Darcy you're a smooth bitch and Thor totally owes you a drink for this. Also, remember to ream Jane for holding out on this shit; seriously, how do you not tell your minion-friend that your future-mother-in-law bit the dust? And you know what? It would have been nice to know our previously-possible-evil-overlord-who-seemed-kind-a-awesome had died too._

"So how'd it happen?" Darcy spewed the question sitting on the tip of her mind—and tongue too apparently—before she could stop it.

With a head jerk that should have given the woman whiplash, Sif's eyes snapped to Darcy's, her glare even more dangerous from before. In fact, Darcy half considered ducking out of the way to avoid a sword or something, _that's_ how serious this chick looked with her stink-eye. Not really one to back away though, call it bravery or just plain old stupidity, Darcy stared back, one of her eyebrows arching up because damn if she wasn't just a little bit nervous.

"Sheesh, just wondering." She said a second later, when Sif seemed more interested in trying to blow her head up with the power of her mind instead of answering the question, "no need to go all Cujo on me; I didn't mean to sound so insensitive."

"You neither sound, nor have the expression of a person empathizing with somebody who has lost something dear to them." Sif answered in a stiff tone, her shoulders still straight and her eyes still glittering with imminent destruction.

"Sorry about that," Darcy gave back with a half-shrug, not sounding quite as apologetic as she may have felt, "it's called resting bitch face and apparently I've got the voice to match."

"You may ask Thor yourself, if you truly wish to know."

"Yeah well maybe I will." Darcy countered, feeling a little defensive now. "Still can't believe he didn't freaking tell me in the first place; what the hell am I, chopped liver? I don't get paid enough—anything in fact—to be chopped freaking liver."

Sif shook her head, looking away again, and that ended the conversation as they strolled closer to the doorway of the giant Golden Snitch, and to the man standing in front of it like a guard dog. He was tall, dark and yeah, a little scary, as he watched them approach with glowing copper eyes. They stopped in front of him—like Darcy would have dared try to walk around him without Sif; she was stupid-brave but not out of her mind; give her credit people—and Sif gave a half-smile, only the corner of her mouth lifting.

"Heimdall, may we pass?"

"You return the mortal Darcy to her home." It wasn't exactly a question, but obviously an answer was still expected.

"Yes." Sif supplied.

"Then you may pass."

As she and Sif moved by him on either side, Darcy snuck a sideways glance at the man. Impressive to say the least, and she usually wasn't one to gush over voices but _his_ was all sex and seriousness, definitely one for the nighttime 800 numbers that she has _never_ called before in her life; nope, not even once because she was drunk and lonely and holding onto her mom's credit card. Maybe she'd suggest it if she ever saw him again though and wasn't in such a hurry to be back on Earth where it was safe. Well okay, _mostly_ safe. Could be good money on the side.

After stepping through the arched doorway of the dome however, Darcy grew distracted from her musings. "Wow," she drawled, drawing out the word even longer than was usually deemed acceptable.

She left her mouth hanging open for a second while she looked up at the multitude of circles carved into the interior walls and ceiling, each one intricate and a piece of art in its own right; way better than those stupid abstract pieces one of her exes used to enthuse about. What the hell did a splash of paint on canvas mean anyway aside from some drunk-ass-artist being out of ideas and broke so he called some piece of shit art then tried to sell it to the highest bidder? People would buy anything these days, the morons.

Still wrapped up in inspecting the room, Darcy didn't realize dude-man had followed them in until the sound of metal sliding into stone shivered through the air and right up her spine. Craning her head to find him, she saw he'd climbed up the steps to the platform in the center of the room, his sword halfway down into the floor. Sif took a step back and abruptly the room started to crackle with energy that shot across the walls like lightening—no _freaking_ joke, _real_ ass lightening! Darcy could feel her hair stand on end, not from the power, but from her sheer awe at the amazingness and alienness—wait, was that even a word?—of it all.

The room, but not the floor, started to move and spin, and Darcy could only gape with eyes wide as what she'd assumed was just a fin moved to the front of them, looking more like a sort of tunnel now. Light burst from inside said pseudo-tunnel, spinning and spinning fast until it looked like a whirlpool of neon plasma. She stared at it, a flutter of fear creeping up from her stomach and to her chest. It was cool as hell but damn sure terrifying.

"Journey safe, Darcy of Midgard." Dude with the sword said from behind, his baritone voice vibrating right through her skin, and just as Darcy turned to say thanks she saw him plunge the sword all the way down into the floor before she was ripped right out of her own flesh and bones; or at least that's how it felt.

For an immeasurable amount of time the world around her was spiraling past, glowing and swirling with stars just beyond the nauseating lightshow that bent her through space. If she had to imagine what getting sucked into a tornado felt like this still would have surpassed it on the intensity scale, but at least she didn't have to worry about getting impaled by flying branches; or she hoped so at any rate. Her second of traveling through the vortex came to an abrupt and a painful stop, and Darcy stumbled forward to her knees then wretched on what she recognized to be a wooden floor. Some landed on the back of her hand. Yep, always great aiming in the Lewis family.

"And that ladies and gentleman," she said while staring at the pile of what had left her stomach, voice hoarse from not only vomiting but probably because she'd been screaming the entire ride as well, "is why Darcy doesn't do rollercoasters."


	5. Shards

After pulling herself together and wiping off flecks of mostly digested poptart from her hand, Darcy stood with a groan, pain shooting through her knees from the tumble. _Well we can't all be freaking ballerina's right? They've got gross feet anyway._ She looked around then snorted in amused disbelief. She was _literally_, right back where she'd started, standing in the same room where the portal had been. The only difference between now and then was her wet clothes, raw skin, serious lack of electronics and an annoying inability to discern detail. _My poor phone…my glasses..._

"But no shit." She muttered, still looking around as if the room might change again at any second. "Good aim there Heimer my man; thanks for the lift." She sighed. "Guess I should go see about bumming a phone off of somebody now—although…"

Darcy stared at the bookshelves ahead of her. The portal had been just behind the first case. She wondered if it was still there or if Odin had worked whatever voodoo-magic he had to close the thing already. Curiosity getting the best of her she moved toward it, her sneakers squeaking with every step. _God I hope I don't get some sort of nasty ass foot fungus from this._ Wet feet in enclosed spaces only bred recipes for disaster that required hospital scented foot spray, and _what the hell are you doing Darce. This is stupid, just go find a phone and get back to Erik's already! _Squelching her way across the room and ignoring her own advice, Darcy paused when she got to the bookshelf, bending down to grab a piece of wall that had exploded inward from the attack last month.

After turning around the shelf she tossed the rock at where the portal should have been. It landed with a lackluster thud, bouncing once before coming to a stop some foot or so away. "Voodoo-magic at its finest." She said with a smirk, glad that her curse for doing things she really shouldn't hadn't led to further disaster yet. She wasn't feeling up for a second dip today.

Still, she considered the fact that she might have missed hitting the portal—she'd only played softball a few years in her early childhood—so with all the caution she could muster Darcy got on her hands and knees and started inching forward, waving her hand through the air after every shuffle so that if it _wasn't_ closed she wouldn't just fall right through again. A thorough search and two even sorer knees later she was convinced that the anomaly was well and truly gone. She started to stand, hell bent now on finding somebody to lend her a phone so she could call a cab, but Darcy stopped moving when something glinted from a ray of stray sunlight and caught her eye. _Well hello..._

Wedged in the wood of the bookshelf just to her left was something shiny, and really, who could resist the pull of a shining mysterious something? What has two thumbs and no apparent self-control? Yep, this girl right here. Without a second thought Darcy reached out for the object, pinching it between her fingertips. It pulled out of the wood without struggle, and while rolling it into the palm of her hand Darcy leaned back on her heels until she was sitting on the floor, her hands between her knees and the shiny thing cradled against her palm for inspection. It felt oddly warm, and although Darcy was sure it was only her body still shivering, it felt like the thing was vibrating against her skin.

It was a sliver of rock smaller than her pinky nail, some sort of yellow gemstone that belonged to a bigger piece if the sharp edges were any indication. It was pretty though and hell, maybe she could sell it as a doomsday souvenir or something on eBay. _The Shard of Thor!_ That had a nice ring to it. She could picture the bid-war already. Leaning closer, Darcy tilted it in the sunlight, the stone glittering with gold and orange hues. But maybe she wouldn't sell it after all; not like she had a souvenir of this place either, and SHIELD sure as shit wasn't going to let her post any pictures to her blog, which was bull by the way because freedom of the press and shit, right. Damn suits and their illegal invasions of privacy. It was insane that they got away with ignoring the constitution the way they did, but she wasn't about to get black-bagged for snitching to some other agency. Darcy appreciated being alive and having at least the illusion of freedom.

Deciding she'd think about what to do with the shard later, she pulled a small wallet out of her pocket and slipped the piece of stone in the front pocket with her ID. Since she had it out already she checked on the other things in there, only to find that all of her money was soaked through and starting to tear the more she fiddled with it. Leaving it alone, she hoped the cabbies would still take it, otherwise she'd have to call Ian for a ride, and that was a conversation she wasn't in the mood for, specifically the part where she'd have to explain why she hadn't called sooner. All she wanted to do was strip out of the wetness, go soak in Erik's tub then collapse on his couch for a long, well deserved, nap.

When she stepped outside of the building a blast of cold air filtered through the damp material covering her and reached straight down to her skin. Goosebumps and shivers were the result, and even though the building had a huge hole in the wall she had to appreciate now how much it had still saved her from the wind. _Freaking England man...and of course the sun's gone too now._ She looked up to see an army of clouds trying to take down what few spots of blue where still up there. The sky didn't stand a chance against the cumulus hoard.

As she searched the area for any bystanders who'd be willing help a sister out, the cold seeping into her was getting unbearable. "Good grief _dry_ already!" she growled. Funny part about that though: it happened, and not just in a slow, gradual, miserable kind of way, no, this was instantaneous. "What the what!" Darcy squeaked, stopping dead in her tracks to stare down at her clothes.

Everything on her was dry now, completely, utterly, how-the-hell-is-that-even-possible, bone dry. She pulled the pair of gloves from her left pocket and her hat from out of her right, both of them the same, dry and fluffy like the Asgardian Sea had never touched them at all. She was flabbergasted, but not ungrateful despite the freakishness of it all.

"Okay—Heimer, Odin, was that one of you, buddies?" Her eyes searched the heavens, but whether she expected an answer or not nothing came. She lifted an eyebrow and forced a toothy, faux-smile. "Well I'm just going to go ahead and assume that it was 'cause I'm too tired to even remotely be afraid of a clothes drying fairy or whatever the hell just happened. So, uh, yeah, thanks again dudes, or whoever was responsible. Muchas gracias."

Donning her hat and gloves, Darcy went about the rest of her search in peace, finding a guy a few minutes later and making her call to Erik. It took a few minutes to calm the man down and wait for him to call Jane so she could get chewed out on a three-way like it was her damn fault for getting sucked into a portal in the first place, but after assuring them that it was closed—and keeping her mouth shut about losing the Jane Device—she told them she was on the way back and that they could finish the conversation then. She called a cab next then handed the phone back to nameless-English-guy and gave her thanks. And yes, her cash was dry too. _Huzzah_!

The next fifteen hours were a nightmare. When she got back to Erik's apartment she found a SHIELD agent waiting there with him. Of course his phone had been tapped by the agency, and they wanted to debrief her straight away, but it didn't go unnoticed that the cheap assholes didn't even bother picking her up. The debriefing took hours, and that was even _after_ she made the story as boring as possible. Yep, fell into a portal, landed in water, got saved by Popeye then sent home by the king, and oh yeah, apparently that dude that tried to take over the world died. Loki? Yeah that's the one. She didn't mention the queen being dead though; that seemed like sensitive territory, territory she'd have to explore the next time she talked to Thor and Jane. It still stung that nobody thought to tell her.

After that she was taken back to Erik's, subjected to more questioning by the scientist, then by Jane via webcam. As assumed, the astrophysicist was _not_ pleased to hear that the Jane Device had been lost at sea, and of course she didn't care a lick about Darcy's personal cellphone or glasses, never mind that grant/scholarship money only went so far. Then Thor's face filled the screen next wanting to know everything that had been said between her and Odin. That of course, led to drinks being brought out when the topic of Frigga's death was approached after she got to the walk with Sif.

"So why didn't you guys tell me?" Darcy asked after hearing how it had all happened and after taking another gulp of wine. Erik had already gone to bed and the sun had gone down hours ago. Thor's face was sad on the screen, and Jane sat next him staring down the bottle of beer in her lap, her face a mask of fatigue and guilt.

"I—It was painful to think about; it still is." Thor confessed, his brows pressing together, conveying the hurt he obviously felt. "You were all rejoicing over the victory, I did not wish to sully it with such grim tidings. Will you accept my apology, Darcy? It was never my intention to render you feeling excluded or insignificant. I did not withhold the information in malice."

"Aw big guy, you don't need to say all that." Darcy offered him a comforting smile and the wave of a hand, already over the whole thing. She never could stay mad about anything for long. "I was an ass for bringing it up like that, you know me and my mouth have a talk first and think later policy. But seriously, I'm _really_ sorry about your mom and brother; I can't imagine how hard that was."

"They were both very dear to me."

"Well if you ever want to talk about them I'm all ears for you buddy. They sound like they were pretty amazing." Darcy managed to stop herself in time before adding: even Loki, aside from all the maniacal, egocentric murder and lack of sanity.

Thor gave a nod, "When you return we will share stories of the past without the aid of this little box. Until then, I believe Jane has more she wishes to say. Goodnight Darcy."

"Nighty-night big guy."

She watched as Thor stood and left the screen, Jane scooting her chair over a second later so that she was centered. "I'm sending over another astrogeographical apparatus to track the other anomalies; we're still getting readings over here that Erik confirmed while you were out. It should get there in a couple days. Try not to lose _this_ one, okay?"

"What? Wait—you're sending me back out there to look for more?" Darcy's mouth fell open.

"Well yeah." Jane stared at her like that was the only possible answer. "There's still some strange readings out there that need to be confirmed, and it's taken all of Stark and Banner's charm just to get SHIELD let us handle this for now. I will _not_ have them butting into our work again, especially since this could directly relate to us…" Darcy zoned out as Jane grew more excited, the string of sciencey words coming out faster as she started going on about the implications of what residual energy could mean or something like that.

"Yeah I've got you." Darcy interrupted at last. "I'm heading to bed now though so if you _don't_ mind I'll talk to you later."

"Tell Erik to call me in the morning so we can compare numbers!" Jane managed to get in before Darcy closed the program and leaned back.

"I could always just drop out." She mused, thinking about how pointless this was all becoming. By the time they'd let her graduate—and on a more serious note, if they _ever _let her graduate—all the crap she learned from her poli-sci classes would probably be forgotten and outdated. All she'd know then is how to repair equipment she didn't understand and run errands for erratic scientists. "At least I'll be qualified for Starbucks."

Two days later she was back outside, a pair of new glasses on her face, Jane's device in hand and a cheap phone from Tesco sitting in the pocket of her jacket, along with her wallet and the shard she'd found from before. She'd only taken it out of her wallet once since discovering it, but the thought of leaving it anywhere else made her feel uncomfortable, so uncomfortable in fact that she deliberately chose not to think about it any further than that. Fine, so she had some sort of weird attachment to the little rock; that was for a therapy session far off in the future, for now, she had more important things to worry about, like how to _not_ fall into invisible portals again. She hadn't come up with an answer just yet.

She was back in Greenwich, this time further up the road from the museum. Erik and Jane had given her the coordinates and sent her on her way like a little girl out to go shopping for mom, only instead of groceries she was out collecting cosmic-alien screw-ups, and that sure as hell wouldn't take care of her dinner later on either. She'd probably order takeout anyway, maybe from that Indian place up the road from Erik's. _Mmm…samosas._

Darcy followed the sidewalk, the memory of the attack still plain on the damage strewn across the road and buildings. Yellow tape blocked off the more damaged areas from the public, and it was on this road, Darcy realized with a laugh, that Ian had saved her life. It sent a surge of warmth from her stomach to her toes as she remembered the exact reasons and emotions behind why she'd hooked up with him in the first place. Sure he'd been clingy and a little too romantic for her tastes after the fact, but the man had saved her life and seriously, how many guys could even boast that sort of thing? Maybe she'd call him after all. What could one more night hurt? _Mmm…samosas and sex._

An hour into her scour of the English streets, Darcy stopped at a café for a coffee to go. On her way out she started to move to one of the exterior tables to get off of her feet for a few minutes when the Jane Device began to beep. "Hey! The last one didn't talk!" A good thing too because the beep was high pitched and nerve-wracking; it reminded her of the motion detectors in Aliens. "Gave over man," she muttered, pulling the thing out of her pocket to take a peak.

As with the old one, the screen showed an array of visual data readouts. The flat line from before was moving in waves now and the circle was pulsing. Yep, that looked familiar. Yay. Darcy sighed and walked past the tables. Coordinates appeared up at the top a second later with a note from Erik warning her to be safe. The thing apparently had a lot more gimmicks than the last one had, which of course meant Jane had been holding out on her the whole time, leaving her with an antiquated thingy while she got to play with the new toys. _Figures._

Whatever she was looking for wasn't far, less than a block away and to the right. After turning around the corner, head bowed to look at the device, Darcy almost ran right into the very thing giving off the reading. "Holy shit on a stick."

Sitting in the middle of the street was not just another invisible portal to who-knew-where. Just a little off center was a spot of _empty_ space. Black and impossible, floating above the ground with a strange ring slowly rotating around the exterior, spiraling in toward the center of the space and disappearing into the blackness. The space was shaped like a circle, tilted and slanted a little so that she could tell the size and shape from where she stood but couldn't see if it extended further back at all. It looked bottomless however, and as she stared over the following seconds she realized everything within a certain distance of the black void was slowly moving closer to it, as if it was getting sucked in and—

"Oh my _freaking_ god!" Darcy pocketed Jane Device 2.0 and pulled out her cell, dialing Erik's number with one hand, refusing to take her eyes off of the anomaly.

"Yes, did you find it?" Erik answered a second later, not even bothering with a hello first.

"Yep, I did, but I think we might have an itty bitty, no, scratch that, a big and hungry problem here." Darcy started, taking a small step back as she watched a piece of trash lift off of the ground and begin gliding up toward the void.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know a hundred percent, but I'm pretty damn sure that I'm looking at a black hole right now."

"A black hole?" Erik's voice raised an octave or two in surprise.

"Yeah. It's just chilling here between a coffee shop and pub and—oh shit it's starting to pull in a mini." Darcy took another step back as the car parked beside the hole started to skid across the street.

"What does it look like?" He sounded excited now, and Darcy wanted to reach through the phone and smack him.

"It looks like a freaking hole, in the air, on the road and its eating stuff! What the hell do I do?"

"Hang on, hang on," Erik said with the sound of shuffling papers. "Stay right where you are, I'm going to call Jane. We'll need to come up with a way to close it, maybe the same equipment we used before could work on this. Just keep everyone away from there until SHIELD arrives, they're probably on the way now. I'll call you back as soon as I talk to Jane."

"Yeah sure." Darcy grumbled as the call disconnected.

She eyed the hole warily, watching as the car drew closer and closer until, a few seconds later the back tires lifted off of the street, the vehicle getting sucked in faster now that there was less resistance. It was amazing to watch something she knew had to be at least a ton just float through the air like it was weightless, but that amazement turned to horrified fascination when it reached the event horizon of the rotating pit. The entire body trembled just before the rear bumper ripped off, pieces of aluminum and plastic tearing away faster and faster as the chunks swirled along the edge of the hole before spinning away into the darkness.

It wasn't until the car was halfway pulled apart that Darcy realized the weirdest part of the whole thing: there wasn't a single sound. The destruction was silent against all logic, like there was a bubble containing the thing and all it reached out for. How big was the bubble though? She glanced along the street, trying to see where the trail of trash along the gutters ended and found that the border might have only been a foot away. _Somebody's looking out for me,_ she thought wryly, feeling more than a little lucky that she hadn't blundered any closer. Partying in a black hole was probably not as fun as it sounded, or didn't sound, whatever. This was too confusing to make a good analogy about.

Following Erik's instructions, Darcy looked behind her to make sure nobody was heading that way—thankfully Greenwich had been pretty sparse ever since the incident—then moved to the left to try and peer around the hole to the street beyond. It was empty as well, but that wasn't to say it hadn't already sucked anybody in. She shuddered at the thought of getting torn apart and condensed into a singularity. That sounded more than a little uncomfortable. Maybe it could be number 11 on her list of worse ways to die.

Darcy started to pace a second later, her eyes flitting from the road to the hole every few seconds to make sure nothing was changing while she waited for SHIELD to get there. Not that she thought there was anything they could do about the hole either, that was scientist territory, not dudes with guns. What were they going to do, tell it to hold still or they'd shoot? She snickered at the thought of them raining bullets into the hole. _Yeah, that'll do it boys. _But she certainly wouldn't have put it past them to try anyway. Then again, if she had a gun she'd probably shoot at it too. Maybe that's why nobody would arm her.

Minutes later SHIELD arrived as promised, and apparently they'd brought a science officer or something of the like with them. The person looked distinctly less armed than the others and was on the phone, carrying some sort of metal pole that looked very familiar. _Guess they got hold of Jane; or at least her stuff._ Darcy watched as the last two SUVs parked, and a small hoard of government agents and black suits made their way over to her. She crossed her arms.

"Well it's about damn time." She griped, "What the hell took you so long, I thought you guys were supposed to be like, the fast response team or whatever?"

"We'll take it from here Miss Lewis." One of the agents said in that no-nonsense kind of voice, stopping in front of her while the sciencey person stepped past both of them toward the hole.

"Let me guess, that's code for get out of here huh?" Before the agent could answer she turned her attention to the smart looking fellow. "Wouldn't get too close there buddy, that thing just sucked up a car so I don't think you'll fare much better unless you're packing a few thousand pounds nobody can see."

The warning worked, the man's step faltering before he stayed put, pulling out a device that looked a little like hers after he set the pole down. Darcy found the field agent staring at her again and sighed, "Yeah, yeah. I got you, let me just get out of your way then." She rolled her eyes.

Darcy turned her back to SHIELD and started heading past the hole when, as before, something small and shining caught her attention. It was wedged into the wall of the pub, just left of the anomaly. Glancing to the ground she noticed a distinct lack of debris on the sidewalk beneath it, so it must have been inside of the bubble. For some reason—and she'd go over this whole thing in her head later, still unable to comprehend _why_ she'd done what she was about to do—this didn't stop her from inching closer to it, glancing over her shoulder after each step to make sure the agents were still focusing their attention elsewhere. And of course they were; she was Darcy Lewis after all, the tag-a-long, the assistant, and the chick who only seemed to get in the way or annoy people, and when she wasn't doing that she faded into the background noise until her mouth opened again. Still, it worked in her favor this time.

Some dark part of her brain, the part that warned people that they are being stupid, was screaming at Darcy to stop, to turn away and just get the hell out of dodge, but despite hearing the warning the urge to take flight never took hold. That shining piece of something in the wall was hypnotic. She wanted it with a sudden desperation so intense that she couldn't think about anything else; even the internal warning stopped shouting at her. A full body shiver traveled across her as she stepped through the apparent bubble or barrier, and she could feel the effects right away, having to actually take a step backward with a surprised gasp for breath. There was no air inside of the bubble, and the pull from the hole had been immediate.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

Darcy jumped at the sound, turning to find two agents and the Bill Nye guy staring at her. She lifted a brow and laughed with a shrug. What the hell _was_ she doing? "Thought I—yeah nothing. Good luck with the whole _hole_ thing." She finished, keeping what she'd seen to herself.

When they all turned away, Darcy slipped into the pub just outside the barrier and took a seat by the window so that she could watch them work. She couldn't decide why she didn't want to tell them about the thing in the wall, or the thing in her pocket for that matter, but she was sure that they were part of the same stone. She didn't want to think about, she wanted to leave and let them do their thing, but Darcy found that she couldn't.

Her body just wouldn't move further than this, every fiber of her wanted to go get the other shard and put it with the one she already had. It was like an itch in her brain, poking at her and prodding, and no matter how much she tried to distract herself with Facebook or Tumblr or YouTube videos, ultimately she kept zoning out and wondering how much longer she'd have to wait until she could go grab the other sliver of stone. She could _feel_ it on the other side of the wall waiting for her, and the presence was so strong she even tried to scrape at the interior of the wall with one of her nails, wondering how long it would take to dig through to the other side.

An hour later Darcy watched the row of black SUV's pull away, the crowd of people who had gathered dispersing without their phones, tablets and cameras, only one of them getting _arrested_ for resisting. When the coast was clear she paid her tab—they wouldn't let her stay without ordering, the cheap bastards—then left the pub and turned the corner to the street that had been host to a temporary black hole. The street was empty now, _very empty_, and some of the road was even missing where the hole had sat above, a jagged crevice the only evidence that something had been there.

Darcy barely noticed any of this as she dipped under the blockade of tape that had been set up and made a mad rush for the wall, some of the stones torn loose from the pull they'd endured. Kneeling down where she remembered the object to be, her breath rushed out in relief at the sight of it still sticking in the wall. Darcy grinned. _Souvenir number two. Come to momma. _She plucked it from the stucco and stood, rolling it around on the palm of her hand with a sense of completeness so heavy she couldn't understand how she'd survived before now. It was like coming home; like breathing for the first time, like sex and chocolate and everything good in her life all rolled together into this tiny piece of rock and _holy shit what the hell is wrong with me! What the fuck is going on?_

Clarity smacked her and the realization that something very weird and wrong was happening hit her like a ton of bricks, or better yet like Thor's hammer. Why was she obsessing over this little piece of rock? Why couldn't she leave the other one behind? Why had she almost freaking _killed_ herself trying to get this one? She had been willing to walk toward a black hole just to touch it! Darcy shivered and wanted to drop the thing, but instead she watched with detached dread as she pulled out her wallet and pushed the new shard down into the front pocket with the other. Another wave of warmth and completeness washed across her, but it was tainted by the knowledge that something was still wrong.


	6. Falling

Darcy thought she would go home—well Erik's home, but close enough considering she had a bra hanging from the shower rod in his bathroom and she'd drunk out of his milk container without a glass already (suck it mom!)—after that. She thought she would take a bath, update Jane and Erik on the readings, do some data entry for Erik, and then maybe zone out for a few hours watching some crappy reality show about Gypsy weddings or something. She thought she'd do a lot of things, but hopping on the subway and heading to an unknown destination _wasn't_ one of those things. Regardless of her thoughts and desires though, that was exactly where she found herself, sitting on the edge of a seat, bouncing her leg as she waited to disembark.

She wanted to go back to the apartment, but something was pulling her elsewhere. As with the shard by the black hole, some outside force seemed to be guiding her body and while Darcy was aware of this there seemed to be little she could do about it. It was like being a puppet on invisible strings, _and so help me_, Darcy thought, _if somebody makes me start river dancing I will shit a brick and bludgeon them with it_, but at the same time it was nothing like that because she still felt like she was in complete control. She even stood a few times to test the theory and stuck her tongue out at some snot-faced kid playing on his mom's iPad. Yep, able to do all of that, but nothing could make her get off the train prematurely.

Several stops came and went, but she stayed seated until just one stop later. This was the place. Darcy didn't know how she knew that, but she did. It felt right. Her body stood without knowing why, only that this was the place to do it and got off of the subway at a brisk pace. She followed the flow of people out onto the street and walked past all of them, her feet knowing the direction even if her mind didn't yet.

"You're going crazy Darce," she mumbled, looking around at some of the people she swept past, "that's what Jane will say when you tell her you went all pod-person for the afternoon. Maybe you're working too hard huh? All this stress, it's getting to you, that's all. You need a nice vay-cay somewhere warm and sunny and _not_ English. Jane won't mind, she'll survive without you." She didn't quite believe that, still not sure how the other woman had even managed to live so many years without an assistant to remind her about food and water and washing her hair; although, the latter wasn't necessary since Thor had come back, but really, if she were banging a god too she'd probably keep makeup on 24/7 just to stay ahead of the competition.

"Erik will have to learn to keep his pants on for a while and do this crap on his own while I'm chilling on a cruise, sipping something alcoholic that's garnished with one of those cute little umbrellas." She wondered what Erik would say if she told him something was sort of controlling her.

He still woke in the night to nightmares, sometimes he cried out, but other times she only recognized it from the strangled gasping he'd fall into. He'd been told almost right away that Loki had died, Jane had confessed over the web cam. The woman had hoped it might help with the night terrors, but it didn't seem to. Darcy decided it was probably a good idea to keep all of this from Erik for now. He had enough fears without having to worry that Loki could control people from the grave, which seemed like precisely the sort of thing he'd start worrying about if she brought it up. _Wait, but what if it _is_ Loki?_

Darcy shook her head. No, that was ridiculous. The man—god—whatever, was dead, and dead was dead no matter what planet you hailed from. Thor said so himself, and if there was one person Darcy could believe about that sort of thing it was him. She couldn't help but wonder what would have happened had he survived though. Would he have continued being a psychopathic serial killer? Would he have been executed or locked up? Would he have been pardoned for his crimes against humanity, because, let's face it, it's not every day a person gets to use that phrase and mean it literally. She supposed it didn't really matter at this point, and besides that she had bigger things to worry about, namely: where the hell were her feet taking her and _why?_ She checked out the area again and noticed she was getting closer and closer to a tall glass building with a domed roof—what did they call it again, the pickle, no the Gherkin or something right?—and shortly after that she was heading inside like she owned the place.

She wasn't sure what the building was used for exactly, but it looked pretty darn official and way too swanky for someplace she'd just hit up on any old day. Before she could get further into the building Darcy had to pass through security tighter than…well, she could think of a few vulgar things that it was tighter than, but after that nobody tried to stop her as she walked through the lobby and headed for the elevators. She stepped inside with several other people and without thinking twice her finger pressed the button for the highest floor available.

"Guess I'm going up." She murmured, growing a little more nervous now that whatever her body was seeking was getting closer.

When she finally got to the top floor she stepped out into what looked like a restaurant she could never afford. Everything was black and white and silver, with paintings, _not_ just prints, and even the waiters and waitresses dressed like they were going to a fancy dinner all black slacks or knee-length dresses. Yep, way above the Darcy pay range, but that didn't stop her from walking forward anyway, straight toward the hostess counter. The woman behind it watched like she expected Darcy to try and make off with the silverware in the next few minutes. When she tried to step beyond the podium the lady gave her a strained smile, her eyes dipping to take in the non-formal jeans and boots, her London Fog thankfully hiding the 'No I will Not Fix Your Computer' hoodie underneath.

"I'm sorry miss, can I help you?" She asked the question with a tone that suggested she wanted to do anything but.

Darcy stared at the lady, trying not to make a face since the last thing she wanted to do was get booted from the building without knowing what was up here. "Yeah I don't think you can. I'm expected. So thanks, but I got this."

She tried to move forward again, the itch growing in her mind with every second she wasn't drawing closer, but the hostess was persistent, going so far as to step out from behind the cover of her stand. "By whom, if I might inquire? I could take you to their table."

"It's who." Darcy answered with a glib grin.

"I'm sorry?" The hostess frowned.

"It's by _who_, not _whom_, and I don't think it's any of your business to be honest, so what say we both just get on with our own thing so I don't have to tell my boss that this place likes to harass Americans 'cause he likes to drink with his lunch and I don't think he'll be very quiet about the whole thing." She leaned in, adding the last part as if she were only looking out for the girl, "Don't think that'll be great for business you know."

"I—" The woman's cheeks grew red and she gave a nod two seconds later, going back to the podium and fumbling with some papers to look as if she had better things to do now.

Darcy was more than a little glad that the lady was obviously not too experienced with the job. Back when she worked the dine-in circuit she would have called the manager herself rather than let somebody be an ass to her. Well, she'd call the manager after being an ass back to them at any rate; those jobs never did last very long, can't imagine why. "Noob." She let a triumphant smile slip out and let her feet continue onward, wondering what she would have done had the chick refused to let her by.

A minute later she was on the other side of the room, standing between two tables and staring out the window. The people to either side of her only glanced up once before making a concerted effort to ignore her presence altogether. She loved the manners that people had over here; so much better than the States sometimes. Somebody probably would have told her to f-off by now, but as it stood they all just did a lot of ignoring, which suited Darcy just fine as she gazed out into the sky beyond. The view was spectacular but her eyes kept moving up, searching the sky instead of appreciating the cityscape.

At first she was confused about why her body wanted to stop here. There didn't seem to be anything special about the location, but that misconception only lasted a few seconds more. On the other side of the glass, maybe a foot or so above her head was another anomaly, only this one didn't register on the device in her pocket. Nothing was beeping or blooping, but there it sat on the other side of the window regardless. What was it exactly? Well, that was something Darcy wasn't really sure about, even staring straight at it.

The anomaly looked like a floating sphere of liquid silver, or maybe mercury. The surface was smooth and unbroken, but the impossible ball was spinning in a slow circle, the world around it shifting and reflecting across the perfect exterior, blending it into the backdrop every now and again until it was nearly invisible. Darcy put her hand against the glass, wanting to get closer, and let out a little gasp when the sphere reacted to the movement. The surface shivering with tiny waves like a drop of water had been splashed against it. She was wearing a stupid smile, she knew that, but couldn't help herself. Something about the ball of liquid was making her excited, both emotionally and physically, her heart starting to pick up the pace. Something was about to happen. Darcy leaned forward, staring at it with her face almost pressed against the window, wishing whatever had drawn her here would reveal itself already. She _knew_ it wasn't the anomaly itself that she needed to see.

The surface shuddering again, and as something mimicked a shark's fin peeking through water, Darcy caught a glimpse of a small, sharp object that glittered like sun fire. It only broke through the exterior for a millisecond, but that's all the time it took for her to know exactly what it was: another piece of stone like the ones sitting warm inside her pocket. But how to get it was the question of the day ladies and gentlemen. Darcy wondered if there was a ladder to the roof somewhere; maybe she could get a rope and climb down the side Spidey style. They washed the windows out there somehow right? Maybe they left that stuff behind.

Darcy started to turn her head to look for a set of stairs, but when she looked over her shoulder her eyes stuck to a man standing just a few feet to the left of her. He was doing the same thing she was, standing at the glass and looking out, his posture relaxed as he hung his hands halfway out of the front pockets on his pants, his dark coat hanging open to reveal a matching waistcoat and white shirt. He was at least a foot taller with longish black hair that was slicked back. It wasn't _exactly_ professional, but he had an air of importance to him nevertheless. Probably some rich couple's pride and joy; a lawyer maybe.

His gaze was locked onto the sphere, and for a single heartbeat Darcy wanted to tackle him to the floor and scream that the stone within it was hers and hers alone. The image was pretty powerful in her mind, shocking her out of the daydream by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. She'd never tackled anybody in her life, and she wasn't about to start with quasi-professional here in a room full of rich yuppies that would promptly call security on her crazy ass. She didn't even think Jane could come up with a brilliant enough excuse as to why she had to throw some aristocrat to the floor and pummel him with insults. Still, the fact that he was looking at her anomaly was discomforting, and that didn't even include the fact that he looked vaguely familiar. She frowned, trying to put a name to the profile, but before she could make any connections he spoke without turning to her.

"You may want to concede this one Miss Lewis, unless of course, you've learned to grow wings." His voice was smooth and while not a London accent, still sounded vaguely English; the Queen's English, not the American, no-taxation-without-representation English.

Darcy blinked at his comment, not only confused by it but baffled as to how he knew her name in the first place, and just like that, in the span of a single blink, the man was on the other side of the glass. He was floating in midair and reaching for the sphere, _her_ sphere. A few people in the room cried out in shock while at least one woman screamed, but the only thing Darcy could _really_ hear and see was absolute-fucking-rushing-red. An upsurge of rage and animosity swelled inside of her, burning so hot that Darcy knew she could have spit fire at the second. He was going to take what belonged to her! How _dare_ he? Who the _hell_ did he think he was? And just as his hand was an inch away and closing in fast, a scream ripped from her throat, some primal mixture of the word no and a growl that could have made the devil go weak in the knees.

Blinded by the unexpected and irrational emotion, Darcy couldn't stop to think or control herself. Without knowing how she moved _forward_, and not _only_ forward; she went up as well. She appeared just to the right of him, and just as in her fleeting fantasy, Darcy made to tackle the man midair, right as his hand slid into the sphere, never mind how she was even outside or flying in the first place. This fucker had to be stopped. He couldn't be allowed to take what rightfully belonged to her. She'd been there first dammit!

Consumed by his own task he didn't notice she was on him until her arms had already wrapped around his chest and they were both hurtling to the left, the two of them losing whatever magic had held them aloft. They plummeted in a rolling heap to the ground below, gravity apparently remembering that they'd dared to defy her in the first place. Darcy only had enough time to notice his fist was closed—the bastard had it!—before he snarled and disappeared from between her arms, leaving her to fall on her own, heavy and horrified.

When a person finds themselves in such a wholly unbelievable situation, the air of reality crashing into them with the force of a runaway train, time slows down a lot. Watching the ground rush up to meet her as the ring of a scream sliced through the air in her wake, Darcy had a few clear, painfully slow seconds to think about a few things and reassess her life choices. What the _hell_ had she just done? For the love of god, why had she done it? _How_ had she done it? Who was that man? Was she really about to die? Was this it? Would she be remembered after this as the puddle outside the pickle building in London, or would she be forgotten about in the years to come?

All of those questions rode the trip down with her as other things flashed through her head. Her dad's disappointment, her mom's worry, the fact that she hadn't graduated yet or got married or had children; she remembered all the people she'd kissed and the men she'd slept with, and then she felt a balloon of regret for all the things she wouldn't do, for all the missed opportunities she'd never get to correct. She still wanted to see other places, travel to ruins and castles and hidden coffee shops; she wanted to dance with strangers and kiss everyone she'd ever found attractive. Captain America's face, Tony Stark, hell, even Thor's friend Robin Hood, their faces flashed behind her eyes and she wished she could have kissed _any_ of them before dying. Just before she felt the blow of concrete against her body she could see Fandral's charming smile as he'd introduced himself back in New Mexico. She'd wanted to leap into his arms right then and there and plant a big one on him. Her eyes closed and she tried to picture herself falling into his arms instead of the hard, unyielding ground.

The collision came less than a hairbreadth later, the wind knocking right out of her lungs as she smashed into something warm, hard and soft—don't even ask the logic there—a grunt of pain and a cry of surprise filling her ears before the world turned upside down and pain bloomed all across her body. Darcy's eyes flew open. The expectation of sudden death not happening gave her a chance to catch sight of something large, brown and hairy as her stomach flipped over and she landed, for a second time, against something firm and moving. It was all incredibly disorienting. She was supposed to be dead. She was supposed to be a pile of broken bones and splattered blood decorating an English sidewalk, but instead she was struggling against a tangle of limbs, hands pulling at her while her vision tried to focus on anything it could. A large animal was standing over her, a horse she realized when the world stopped spinning and the thing stamped its feet with a snort.

"—did she come from?" A voice shouted with a tone that was deep, rumbling and _amused_. Wait, what asshats thought _any_ of this was funny! She'd almost died, she'd almost been a smear of jelly on the road she—she—she was _so _going to be sick, she realized when her stomach shuddered, the stress of near death just as toxic as the fall itself.

"—all right?" Another voice asked, but Darcy's head was still ringing and she was pushing away the hands reaching for her as she crawled away on all fours, her stomach threatening to lose the Rueben she'd eaten an hour ago, and she wasn't too keen on barfing all over the person who'd padded her fall, which, she still had plenty of questions about but that could come in a minute.

Ignoring everything at her back, Darcy stared at the grass under her hands, clutching it between her fingers as she heaved for a few seconds, hoping behind hope that the sandwich stayed right where it belonged. Worst week ever people, seriously. She didn't even remember throwing up this much in so few days her first week of college! When her stomach finally stopped trying to punch its way out through her lungs, Darcy leaned back into a sitting position and took in a deep, shuddering breath. She tilted her head back and looked up to see a clear sky, blue and gilded with the hues of sunlight, decorated by twin planets that loomed in the distance. So okay, she wasn't on Earth, but that didn't matter yet. She was freaking alive, and that was a seriously, holy-crap-there-might-be-a-god, miracle.

Darcy laughed, unable to control the wave of pleasure, happiness and relief that came over her, a couple tears even managing to squeeze their way out while she rode the high. "Holy crap balls I'm alive." She had to say the words out loud, the truth too awesome to keep quiet, and she might have even jumped up and danced a little if somebody behind her hadn't cleared their throat. _Oh yeah... _She forgot there was an audience.

Forcing her laughter down, Darcy looked over her shoulder to see three sets of very curious eyes staring at her, two of them sitting over smiles and one attached to a suspicious glower. There were a lot of things she could have said just then, and quite a few flitted through her mind. She wanted to say thanks; wanted to ask where she was or if they'd seen how she got there; all that managed to get out however?

"Sup."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Alright guys I'm staring to get a complex here... Not a single review? Does it really suck that bad or have I just rendered the masses speechless? ;-; I yearn for validation! All right...done whining. Hope you guys like it so far though.


	7. The Warriors Three

**-1-**

Natasha Romanoff was a woman of many questionable talents, but no matter where she was in life, or what she found herself doing, she was always dedicated to her job first and foremost. She'd always been that way, even before she'd been brought in to work for SHIELD. If her _employers_ wanted somebody dead, they died; if they wanted her to infiltrate a company run by the world's first out-of-the-closet superhero, it was done; if they wanted to her fly to Germany and investigate a series of reported miracles, then to Germany she would go.

"Miracles?" Clint repeated the question again, walking with her after she'd left Fury's office with her assignment. She didn't normally share mission details, not even with Hawkeye, but this task didn't seem exactly top secret or even critical. Regardless, she never questioned assignments.

"That's what he said." She answered again, observing her fellow agent from the corner of her eye.

"Isn't that what the Catholic Church is for?" He asked with a half-smile. There were still dusky rings under his eyes; nightmares, although he refused to admit it. Like with Selvig, it didn't matter how much time seemed to pass since the encounter with Loki, both men had been changed forever. Even a year after the fact they were still crying out from the horrors in their heads. She wondered what memories or fears filled his nights with terror.

"Who do you think called us?" Natasha caught his eye when she answered, and she could tell he was wondering whether it was the truth or not. She didn't know, to be honest, who had sent SHIELD the tip; that was Director's Fury area, not hers, and she didn't care either. She just enjoyed teasing Clint, and even more than that, she relished the knowledge that nobody, not even a so called god of lies, could read through her.

By the time she arrived in Berlin the sun was already setting for the day. It made little difference to the Black Widow though; she could do her job regardless of time, location or general weariness. Jetlag was a bitch she'd never bow down to, even relishing the challenge a little as she cracked an aspirin between her back teeth. While she changed clothes in her SHIELD appropriated hotel room, she ran over the information that had been printed in the dossier of her target. She'd worked on memorizing it during the flight, that was just standard procedure, but she always liked to recite it again after just to be sure.

Kristian Koch: aged thirty two, born August 18th, single, male, 71.68 kilograms and 175.26 centimeters tall. He was a legal assistant to Hans Müller. Three days ago he'd returned to his apartment in Berlin just after 16:00, after a non-stop flight from London. It was an end to his annual vacation in England where his mother lived with her husband and three cats. Two days ago his neighbor, one Frau Elaina Schmidt, a victim of a hit and run back in 1968 who had been paralyzed from the waist down, started walking again. A day after that the Patel family, another set of neighbors, found an envelope full of money in the mail, and their son who had stage 4 cancer was deemed cancer-free; the money covered all of the family debt down to the last penny and no more.

Last night, after checking into the St. Hedwig-Krankenhaus as a visitor, Kristian left approximately four hours later. An hour after that every terminally ill patient who'd been allowed visitors, plus five children that had been in critical condition in ICU walked out, one by one, the only common factor in their cases being a mysterious late night visitor. Natasha Romanoff didn't believe in miracles. She didn't believe in god or the devil, and she didn't believe that everyone could be only good or evil. People were people; faulty, selfish, occasionally good and forever fluctuating based on the experiences they amassed throughout a lifetime. Despite believing these things, Natasha couldn't help but wonder if Kristian might change her mind. She doubted it, but anyone who held fast to blind beliefs and refused to let new ones in could never grow and evolve, and Natasha was very adept at evolving.

She arrived at his apartment before he did. He had gone to work that day despite the late night, and he was due back within the next thirty minutes depending on traffic. He was traveling by bus. Natasha had already taken a peek around his apartment and settled onto one of his dining room chairs by the time she heard his key unlocking the door. She had turned the chair to face the entrance so that he would see her as soon as he stepped inside. Wearing something comfortable yet feminine, Natasha crossed her right leg over the left and folded her hands on top of her lap. She didn't want to scare him too bad after all.

Their eyes met as soon as he stepped inside, and she could see the apprehension on his features, the reaction fast and sure. Whether he'd been expecting to get caught or not was hard to tell, but he didn't seem _entirely_ surprised to see her. He managed the fear well enough and even closed the door behind him. He set his keys on the table by the door before stepping closer. Natasha always appreciated that aspect of being a woman in this line of work. It made men bolder, even if they were off guard. Nobody expected her to be capable of all she was, and it was that underestimation that got so many of them maimed, restrained or even killed.

"Wer bist du?" He asked, one of his hands pressing against his pants pocket. Something was in there.

"I'm Agent Romanoff." She answered with a gentle inflection. Fury had told her to bring the guy in without force if necessary. "I think you know why I'm here."

Kristian shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and the other hand, the one not pressing against his pocket, wiped down against his pants. He was nervous. "I suspect," he started, accent thick, "that it has maybe something to do with the hospital."

Natasha favored him with a small smile, just the corner of her mouth, enough to let him know that he was correct. "And your neighbors. Amit Patel was _very_ convincing in terms of your ability. Please, Mr. Koch, will you have a seat?"

"Are you here to arrest me?" He didn't move any closer, but the muscles in his neck started to tense. Her answer would determine whether he bolted for the door or not.

"No." It wasn't an entire lie. She'd try to bring him in peaceably if he cooperated. "I work for an organization that's very interested in situations like yours. Situations," she paused for dramatic effect, "that could be dangerous to others."

"I am no danger!" He argued. There was truth and passion in his eyes and on his tongue, and he'd even taken a step closer. He wouldn't resist, Natasha could see that now. "I wanted only to help them."

Natasha nodded so that he could see she understood his plight and motivation. "You're a good man Mr. Koch. My employers know that, but they need you to come in, just for a few questions, nothing more."

He let out a heavy sigh, acquiescence hunching his shoulders down before he took a seat perpendicular to her at the table. His hand moved to the pocket he'd been cradling and Natasha got ready to leap over the table and wrap her legs around his throat. She could have him down on the floor in less than two seconds, but when his hand rose again she saw it unnecessary. He twisted his wrist and opened his palm to her, revealing a small stone sitting in the middle. It glittered like a fire opal against his skin, about two and a half centimeters in diameter. Natasha wanted to grab it, and it was that abrupt desire that held her at bay, her muscles taut in surprise. Lack of control was unacceptable.

"What is that?" She asked, her voice still even, smooth and showing no signs of the internal conflict.

"This is what I find in London. It was—" he hesitated with a frown, but after finding her eyes holding him in place, willing to hear whatever he had to say, he continued, "—it was in a—a—oh wie sagt mann?—spring? A fountain! It was in a fountain.

It was late and I walked to my room again. I passed a fountain that did not have water; no water, but _hair._ Human hair I think it was, that came out from the holes. I thought maybe someone was hurt in there but that was wrong. The hair, it acted like water, coming out from the top and making a lake in the bottom. It moved like waves in the ocean. I could not help but watch, and not long after the hair, it—it turned into water. When it did I saw then this stone at the bottom.

I cannot explain, but I knew I must take it. This stone, it called to me like magic. After—I run to hotel then and fell. It was a bad fall, and my knee, it bled much. The stone, it was in my pocket when I wanted this injury gone. Even as I think this, it is only a wish but it happens! I try a few more things and all the same. If I want it then it will happen, but only thing close to me."

His eyes had strayed to the stone while he spoke, and Natasha had watched him carefully for any sign of deception. He was telling the truth, or at least he believed it to be the truth. Kristian's eyes moved to hers again. "This is why at the hospital I must go to each person to help them. I must touch them."

He closed his hand around the stone again and pulled it back to his body. The urge to take it dampened right away, much to Natasha's relief. She wasn't sure what Kristian had in his hand, but she _did_ know the potential implications were powerful. What bothered her more than anything though, even the odd desire to have the rock for herself, was the fact that it didn't look whole. It looked like a piece of something larger, and if that were true, then where was the rest of the stone? She gave him a nod to indicate she'd accepted his story before she pulled out a small phone from a hidden pocket on her attire.

"I'm going to call my employers Mr. Koch. Will you tell them the same story you just told me?"

Kristian Koch gave her a quiet nod, defeat and worry settling into the lines on his face. She wasn't sure what SHIELD would do with him, but she did know they wouldn't let him keep hold of that rock, certainly not if it could do some of the things he'd said it could. She dialed a memorized number on the phone, and when the line opened, no voice greeting her at all, she simply said, "We're ready for pick up."

**-2-**

The quiet moments, just after the sun rose but before the people awoke for their day were always the heaviest in Thor's opinion. A prince he might be, but he was a warrior first and foremost, and he had never—at least not until recently—taken to sleeping long after the sunrise. Sometimes this habit struck again, and as with this morning he would find himself sitting at the edge of the bed he shared with Jane, his head bowed down to the floor while he grew lost inside his own musings.

Jane slept deep and was hard to awaken by mistake, an aspect he appreciated much during the heavy morning minutes when he yearned for solitary contemplation. Many considered him nothing more than a fighter in heart, soul and mind, and perhaps they had the right of him for the most of his life. He had been a shallow, crass youth with no desires outside of glory and victory. Lately however, ever since his father's banishment and the events thereafter, he found himself laden with a head full of thoughts he'd never considered before, thoughts regarding his future and the future of those he cared for.

He looked over to the woman sleeping beside him. She was beautiful. Thor had lived countless years surrounded by the magnificence of his own kind, the Aesir a flawless people, but it was the flaws and weaknesses of Midgardian mortals that he found so inexplicably appealing and attractive. In his arms Jane was fragile and small, so easy to overpower or harm that even the gentlest of touches required concentration and finesse. This need for caution and care had tempered him almost immediately, because even without his vast power he had still been greater than they. It was awe-inspiring to think how easily he could hurt, or even kill, any of them.

What humbled Thor however was their ability to overcome these physical failings. His encounters with the mortals in the past had been fleeting and full of pomp. He wanted nothing more than to be the god they thought him, the god his father had promised them he was. There had never been a desire to know them, and it was that lack of empathy that had led Thor down the path he'd taken, the path to being a cruel and brazen king, the path that Loki had pushed him from. Wrong his brother may have been in his methods and deeds, but a large part of Thor was still grateful for the change these actions had wrought in his life. He smiled at the sleeping mortal. Twice Loki's actions had gifted Thor with Jane, the first being his initial encounter with the woman, and the second when his brother had saved her life.

Struggling to battle away the memories of his lost family, Thor was gladdened when Jane finally woke. He took her into his arms and lost himself to her skin and affections, eager for the distraction and the reminder that perhaps the costs paid by so many had been worthwhile. Once they were both satisfied and Thor's dark thoughts supplanted by Jane's words and whispers, the two left the comfort of their rooms to start the day, Jane for her lab and Thor to the gym where he had an appointment with the Captain of America.

"—we do something about it?" Thor paused in the doorway of the lab, the sight of Jane, the Iron Man and Dr. Banner speaking with raised voices somewhat of a surprise. He'd come to retrieve his lady for a break of food and drink, and perhaps to sneak off to their quarters for a little while, and instead he found her staring the other two men down, her arms crossed and her face firm with resolve. He knew that look.

"It's not that easy Doctor Foster." Banner said, motioning to one of the screens in the room. "The signature that you and Doctor Selvig assigned to the anomalies doesn't seem stable or we're dealing with something different. We've gotten a lock on three separate events in the last hour, and before we can zero in on them with the satellite they're gone again."

"What about the black hole Darcy found? SHIELD didn't seem to have a problem getting _there_ using _our_ signature." She responded with a clipped tone.

"_That_ one was stable." Banner countered, "None of these other ones are, and they only last a few seconds before they go blank."

"Sounds like you guys need to get some better data to work with." Stark added as he eyed the monitor. "JARVIS, how's the C-10 doing? Is it operational yet?"

"Not since the incident on floor thirteen sir. Shall I bring model 9 back online?"

"Is that the one with the weird bug eyes?"

"The optical stalks, yes."

"Yeah that—no, leave that one offline. It freaks me out."

"It was _your_ design sir."

"I was drinking." Stark, the only one who didn't have his back to the door, finally took notice of the god standing in the doorway, his eyes meeting Thor's before a grin fell to his lips. "Hope you're delivering cause Foster's not going anywhere 'til we get a handle on this mess."

Jane and Banner looked over their shoulders to him, and Jane shared a smile as he closed the distance between them. With a frown, Thor looked at the equipment, his eyes landing last onto the monitor they'd all been motioning toward. It looked like a map of Midgard, each continent laid out flat and glowing. There was another square on the screen—it had taken Thor some time to learn that word, although he still thought of the device as a picture window more oft than not—and it seemed to show a smaller area mapped out.

"What problems aggravate you so?" He asked to Jane as her hand slipped into his.

"Those things that Erik and I are having Darcy find so we can get a better reading on them," when he nodded she continued, "well after the last one there hasn't been any more stable anomalies."

"And they're spreading to a wider range." Banner added, turning his attention back to the monitor.

"These irregularities, they grow worse?" Thor asked, the frown still pinching his brows together. He didn't understand how the energy for these things worked exactly, but he did know that ever since the convergence and the unleashing of aether, there seemed to be a weakness in the universe where the center of the confrontation had taken place. Black holes were not meant to inhabit Midgardian streets, and the notion that it had been fixed and autonomous was displeasing to say the least.

Jane had called him an hour ago, her voice wavering between excitement and dread as she'd explained what Darcy had discovered at the latest anomaly site. SHIELD had contacted her seconds after Erik, the organization demanding information on how to close the object. Grousing about the heated discussion that came next, Jane bemoaned the fact that they had confiscated her equipment after the convergence while sharing her mixed relief at the act considering those items were the only thing likely to close the anomalies with the right settings in place.

After they'd arrived here in the new city of York—most of the equipment had been taken from them at the airport—Stark had assured Jane to fret not. She still had the blueprints for her inventions, and with his funding she could build upon those ideas. It had been an amusing journey back to the city his brother had nearly destroyed, made so only by his lady's insistence that they not use Mjölnir as a taxi service—she explained the meaning of this while they'd flown—and her insistence that he not _cause a scene_ at the airport. There were evidently strange rules set in place among Midgardians on who was deemed trustworthy enough to fly. It was a strange idea, but Thor chose not to argue the absurdity.

"It would seem so, and here we thought for a minute they were getting better. So much for that." Jane answered, leaning against his arm. She did so whenever growing stressed, but Thor certainly didn't mind giving her any emotional or physical support if he was able. She had been there for him many times already…

"We got a hit as far as Lisbon." Banner answered, and as a red dot flared on the screen for a few seconds before fading again he added, "Make that 20 miles outside of Budapest."

"_And_ JARVIS was nice enough to let us know there's been some interesting SHIELD chatter, something happening in Berlin apparently, but those sneaky sons of bitches _seem_ to be making every effort to keep me from finding out what that is so far, so," he drew the two letters out to six or more, "I'll probably have that information within the hour give or take a few minutes. That's enough time for a cocktail."

"Our allies, they keep information from us now?"

"I'd call them the occasional co-worker that you never invite out to lunch before I'd go with ally but yeah." Stark replied, "Guess we didn't make the need-to-know list this go 'round."

**-3-**

Thor's friends. That's who the group of men were; Darcy would have recognized them anywhere, which also probably answered her question about current location too. Samurai man—yeah sue her she couldn't remember his name, but he looked Asian and had a sword and that was samurai material, right?—was the one glaring at her like she'd just attacked them all. Viking man—okay, okay, so Darcy was stereotyping and that probably wasn't cool, but they all had funky names that were difficult to recall and the dude totally looked like Hägar the Horrible!—was smiling, not at all threatened by her sudden appearance although she could see questions in his eyes.

Then there was Robin Hood—okay, so she _did_ remember Fandral's name, but that was only because she wanted to make out with him something fierce—wore the same expression as Viking-man, amused and curious, a smile curling the corner of his lips, ready to roll into a joke at any second if what she'd seen of him back in New Mexico was _any_ hint of his usual persona. Fandral was the only one not on a horse, and from the way he brushed grass off of his armor and the disheveled hair on his head, Darcy could tell it was him who took the brunt of her fall. Her hero; now if only she could get the picture of kissing him out of her head. Good god did she have a thing for guys keeping her from dying or what? Still, that wasn't a bad thing to look for in a man, right?

"Only you, Fandral, can leave to hunt for raf and catch a maiden fair instead, from thin air no less! Does your talent know no bounds?" The Viking joked, a toothy grin showing from behind his ruddy beard.

Fandral's smile widened, "Only if your appetite does, but it would seem not even the wild can restrain my lure. And this is not any fair maid my friends. This one we've met before."

The Viking squinted at her, his mind clearly trying to puzzle out who she was and making a mess of it. Probably thought she was a past fling or something. To save him the headache she craned her body around and waved, "Darcy Lewis, female, student, Earth." She offered, and when his frown only deepened she included, "Thor's girlfriend's assistant. We met when you guys took down Optimus Prime back in Puente Antiguo."

"She's from Midgard." Samurai concluded.

Fandral took a step forward and held a hand out to her, "You fell from the sky Lady Darcy, with quite some force I must say." As she grabbed his hand and he pulled her up he continued, "May I ask how you came to appear so suddenly on Asgard, and with such lethal accuracy?"

He'd drew her closer than most people would deem generally appropriate with the lift off the ground, which might have explained the sudden rush of heat in her body when she looked up at him. _Don't kiss him, don't kiss, don't kiss him._ His hand was warm around hers and Darcy couldn't help but wonder if her face was flushed from the way he was smiling—well, _leering_ actually, but he was cute enough that she was willing to give it a pass.

She still needed to answer the question though, and there was no way she was admitting that she'd been thinking about kissing him and being in his arms just seconds ago while almost dying. That was bar-talk there, not out in the wilderness with some really buff god-dudes conversation; also, that would require her to explain the near death and for whatever reason she didn't want anybody else to know about the shards, at least not yet. Knowing that, she really wasn't sure how to answer the question with or without a lie. How _had _she gotten here, and more than that, who was the bastard who'd gotten hold of her rock? She shuddered from the rise of residual anger that still coursed through her veins at the knowledge. Right, they were waiting for an answer. Darcy smiled, and gave a shrug as she pulled her hand out of Fandral's.

"Yeah I have no idea, but I'm apparently making a bad habit of it." Darcy saw Viking and Samurai exchange glances, but Fandral seemed okay with her answer, nodding before waving his hand back toward his compatriots.

"We were in the midst of a hunt when you landed atop my steed and I, but we shall of course discontinue and escort you back to the city with haste. I'm sure Odin will be quite intrigued to hear of your visit."

"Yay." Darcy answered, raising a very unenthusiastic fist into the air. Yep, Odin was going to _love _this. She'd probably just tell him it was another portal; it had to be anyway right? How else could she pop over to another world? _Right by the person I was thinking about too?_ She ignored the last stray thought, the implications making her head hurt.

A few minutes after that Darcy found herself clutching onto the back of Robin Hood as they rode his horse together. She wasn't afraid of horses per say, but having never been on top of an animal that could easily stomp her to death didn't make for a very comfortable situation, so she held on tight and hoped to hell that she didn't fall off. She liked her face better _untrampled_, thank you very much. While Fandral and Viking—Volstagg, she heard him called—tried to make light conversation with her, Samurai—Hogun—kept eying her like he expected she would pull out a dagger and try to kill them all at any second. Even as he kept to the rear she could feel his eyes burning on the back of her neck, but she couldn't really blame him. If some girl bum rushed her out of midair she'd probably be a little suspect too. _Bitches be crazy_,she snorted, wondering if he'd thought something similar.

"You mentioned making a habit of appearing on Asgard, Lady Darcy" Fandral said a little while later, after her grip tightened for a second when the horse made a disgruntled noise. Maybe it was unhappy from the extra weight? She seriously didn't want to fall anymore today. "You've been here before then?"

"I uhh—" she tried not to think about tumbling off, concentrating on the question instead and how to answer without mentioning anything she wasn't comfortable talking about, "Yeah, just once, fell through a portal into the water a couple days ago."

"Was the All-Father made aware of this?" Hogun asked, his voice sharp as a blade. The dude _really_ didn't trust her.

"Well duh." She answered, "Popeye—Gunnar I mean, some dude with a boat, he fished me out and took me to see the big man, then your girl Sif took me to Heimer who sent me home. Nothing exciting." _Wow, what kind of world do I live in now where visiting another planet and seeing an alien king isn't exciting? And I used to think keg stands were an adventure._

Darcy saw Fandral look over to Volstagg before his voice vibrated through his back and into her chest, "The Lady Sif made no mention of this."

"Yeah I can't say she was all that happy about it. I may, or may not have, insulted her on the way home."

"You insulted Lady Sif and lived to tell the tale?" Volstagg roared with laughter. "That's a story for the feasting halls for sure."

The conversation grew quiet after that as the men concentrated on traveling through the trees and across slopes made perilous by the bed of loose leafs covering every inch. Darcy hung on for dear life, but found herself nodding off from the warmth at her front and the gentle sway of horse hips underneath, the threat of dropping off either side growing less likely as she learned to move with the animal instead of against it. Almost dying was an exhausting ordeal, and unlike her dip into the Asgardian Sea, this one didn't require her to sit through hours of intense, fluorescently lighted interrogations afterward.

By the time she opened her eyes again it was dark, and Fandral was trying to get off of the horse without waking her, or sending her sprawling. The lack of delicacy on his part led to her jerking awake with the sensation of losing to gravity again, Volstagg the only thing that kept her from meeting the ground when his hand caught the back of her shoulder. They had a good laugh at her expense, Hogun the only one not amused, and before too long they were all sitting in front of a fire, the sounds of forest filling the air around them. It was like living inside one of those sound loops with the fire crackling and crickets chirping. How the hell did people find that relaxing? All Darcy could keep thinking about was how many bugs she had to keep smacking away and how much she'd miss sleeping with a pillow. At least she knew now that camping was _not_ a pastime she'd be getting into any time soon.

As Volstagg unpacked some food for everyone—a nice array of jerky, cheese and bread—the conversation moved from hunting to food after Darcy asked what kind of animal the sweet jerky had come from. She wasn't about to try pronouncing the name after they told her and continued on to describe something that sounded like a six legged bovine, but at least she could cross eating an alien version of beef off of her bucket list.

"We never did get a chance to sample any Midgardian cuisine before departing your realm." Volstagg was saying with a hint of disappointment, food apparently, his favorite topic ever. He's managed to shift the conversation back after a minute detour to war, then the spoils of war, then the feasts of war and so maybe it was an okay segue after all. "It would do me well to taste some new dishes."

"That's _all _you do." Hogun grunted from his place between the other two warriors.

"Not true!" Viking argued, "I oft eat the same meals a thousand times over."

"And a thousand times again." Fandral finished with a hoot before saying, "Perhaps the All-Father will let us return Lady Darcy to Midgard ourselves. Then you will have your chance to try the local victuals."

"And perhaps a few other delicacies of the realm." Volstagg added with a grin, his eyes darting over to Darcy for only a second.

He hadn't been the only one to glance her way since she'd taken her coat and hoodie off, the balmy evening air making it too uncomfortable to keep on since she wasn't about to sweat her ass off without the promise of a nearby shower. She wasn't shy about the fun bags on her chest—thank you Danny Simmons for lending that wonderful name back in the 8th grade—but she got the feeling that women on their world didn't wear things like tank tops very often, and the constant browsing of her wares was starting to make her warmer than the heat had. But maybe that was only because Fandral didn't even try to be subtle about his ogling, whereas at least Volstagg and Hogun made it feel like each peep was just another accident. Every time her eyes met with the archer's across the fire there was a promise sitting on his lips and staring out from his eyes. She'd only have to say the word and—

"We could visit Thor." Hogun said, his voice grim as it interrupted the pg-13 thoughts starting to grow in Darcy's mind. For some reason his suggestion brought the mood of the entire conversation to a cool simmer.

"If he would see us." Fandral answered, the humor fading from his voice and his eyes leaving Darcy's to look at Hogun.

"How _is_ our prince?" Volstagg asked, looking at Darcy's face this time, his previous mirth missing.

"Thor?" She asked, as if there could be anyone else in question, but she was still feeling a little hot under the collar from all the heated stares in her direction, not to mention it had been a long ass day already with less than satisfying rest.

"Who other?" Volstagg asked with a chuckle, noticing her distraction.

"Oh, well he's—" But then something in her head clicked. A light bulb turned on. A door opened. A bell rang. Whatever the hell analogy worked best, Darcy was struck by a sudden spark of insight so shattering that it tightened inside of her stomach and squeezed the air out of her lungs so that her breath hitched. Who other? What other prince was there? Loki. Loki was who other and Loki was who she'd seen in the building. _No, it couldn't be…_

This recognition came with a flash of memory so poignant in her mind that she was surprised it hadn't dawned on her instantly. She'd only seen him once, but it was an unforgettable once. Jane had been shipped off to Norway and by onus so had Darcy, her place being at the astrophysicist's side until this never-ending internship of hers came to an end. There was no real explanation for the trip, just some vague excuse regarding equipment that Jane could benefit from using. After they'd gotten to the facility, dropped off by helicopter in the middle of freaking Nowhere Norway, it was obvious there was no equipment. It was a standard office with only the most basic amenities, the _equipment_ almost identical to the crap they had back in New Mexico.

Even the other people there looked surprised to see them. Jane and Darcy had stood in the doorway with nobody to greet them, the other people living there—read four, four other people who had already been hiding up there for six months, one of which was an assistant like Darcy who took care of the other three with the drive of a mother hen—had no idea who the two of them were or what they were meant to do there. By the time that had all been sorted out using a set of bi-lingual dictionaries, the helicopter was long gone, and they were stuck in the Norwegian mountains with bitter winds and biting snow that already falling faster than before.

A couple days after that Darcy discovered all the answers. Jane had made the best of their situation, continuing her work in what little ways she could, but Darcy had been bored stiff and a bored Darcy inevitably led to a troublemaking Darcy. Troublemaking, in the Lewis handbook, consisted of everything from shaving the family cat, setting off fire alarms in middle school so that she could steal Beth Wright's pudding packs, switching out all the AV club's movies with her cousin's porn collection, to hacking through the computer system of a Norway lab in an effort to play a little online poker only to find headline news about an alien attack in New York with HD video footage of real life superheroes _including Thor_, fighting them off.

It wasn't long before everyone in the lab stood huddled in front of the monitor to watch the battle, Jane's hand leaving red impressions on Darcy's shoulder as the older woman witnessed it all with mixed emotion, although fear was probably at the top of the list. There wasn't much in the way of explanation for the how or why of the attack, but one brave copter had swept by Stark Tower and caught sight of two men, one of which matched the description for some sort of terrorist attack that had happened in Germany only a day or so before.

The man glanced up at the helicopter with a look so laced with disdain that Darcy could almost taste it. The news station had taken a still frame of the shot and filled the screen with it. That face, the one she'd later be told was Loki himself, Thor's insane, wayward brother, was way too similar to the one from London. She wasn't absolutely, positively without a doubt sure, but the sharp chin, strong nose and black hair made for a compelling comparison.

"—he's good." Darcy finished her answer a second later, her voice faint and distracted.

It couldn't be Loki, it just couldn't. He was dead; Thor and Jane had both said so. Thor said he'd _watched_ his brother die back on—on—what the hell was that place called? She frowned, trying to conjure the name. Why did everyone name their planet something crazy weird? Anything more than one or two syllables was way too many for a chunk of rock carrying a little life on board. Earth. Asgard. Those were easy to pronounce names, not like those other ones. _Svar_—Thor had said they'd even left the body there though, hadn't they? Something about going back to look for it and not being able to find the exact location they'd been at during the convergence.

"Just, you know—and Jane." Darcy was still talking, so absorbed with her train of thought she could barely string a sentence together. She had asked something about what his funeral had been like after Thor and Jane had tearfully described the beauty of Frigga's services, and Thor had lamented the inability to provide such a thing for his brother. So that meant the body was still on _Svartal_—

"Is everything well?" She could feel Fandral's eyes on her again, and when she looked at the warriors she noticed all three watching her with wary expressions.

Darcy let out a quick laugh to try and placate them, even feeling silly for getting so caught up in herself and her crackpot theory. There was no way it was Loki. "Yeah I'm fine, I just—" _Fine. Wait_, _fine._ _Fine, dine, rhyme, hime. Hime; that was it: Svartalheim. That's it! Loki died on Svartalheim! _

Remembering the name, Darcy's lips turned up into a grin. Damn she was good! She wanted to share her sudden victory over vocabulary, even if they wouldn't understand it, but the bigger part of her just wanted to leave immediately. She wanted to get to the dark elf planet somehow and see Loki's body for herself. That would clear everything up and then she could get on the right track to finding whoever the asshole thief was for real. It couldn't be Loki. _It isn't him._ Being distracted by the dead wouldn't be anything but well, a distraction. Darcy opened her mouth to ask if they thought Heimdall might consider taking her to Svartalheim first, but just like that the warriors escorting her home were gone. The trees were gone too, and the fire and the starlit sky. All of them were missing, replaced instead by an entirely different world and new sky of burnt umber, the night having changed to a bloodied sunset.

Darcy found herself sitting on dry, cracked earth, the soil rust colored and the ground blackened beneath like some great fire had consumed the entire area, scorching everything in its path. She climbed to her feet, the warm wind whipping at her hair, tugging at it with a lover's insistence that made her glad the air wasn't cold because her jackets hadn't made the trip with her. Spinning in a slow circle, Darcy tried to take the world around her in without freaking out, her heart already starting to hammer.

"Oh not again." She mumbled, the sudden lack of company leaving her empty and more alone than ever, and with no immediate danger to her life or person to distract her, the seriousness of her situation was setting in fast. Feeling a little like Frodo from Lord of the Rings, Darcy dropped a hand down to the pocket of her jeans, a little comforted by the fact that her wallet was still there, along with the pieces of stone. Of course, her phone and Jane Device 2.0 were back in the pockets of her jacket, not that she thought either of them would do her much good here anyway.

"Shit." Darcy stopped her spin and pushed her glasses further up on her nose. "Okay well, on the bright side," she offered in consolation, "at least you didn't throw up this time right? That's an improvement. Sort of. You're getting better at this whole world jumping-Slider's thing you got going on here."

That didn't make her feel better though. She was still alone, and still on a planet that she was fairly certain wasn't Earth _or_ Asgard; she got the feeling it was the very place she'd been hoping to go. Svartalheim. She asked for it, and now she was here. _Be careful what you wish for. _Crossing her arms, Darcy frowned in thought, no longer able or willing to ignore the things that had been happening to her, things she'd been trying to write off as freakish coincidences or miracles or favors granted by gods or fairies or whatever have you because crap like that just didn't happen in the Lewis family. However, the evidence was still there.

She'd wanted to be dry and it had happened right after finding the piece of rock in the museum. She'd been craving poptarts the day after, positive there were none in Erik's apartment, but after wishing for some while she'd been searching through his pantries a box had appeared when she wasn't looking. She'd wanted to stop that man from getting the stone inside of the anomaly, and in an instant she'd been outside, flying in the air and assaulting him. She'd wanted a final kiss before dying, the untouchable men in her life flashing before her until she'd chosen Fandral as a last fantasy, and BOOM, she'd landed right in his arms, the one place she'd wanted to be. And then just seconds ago she wanted to go to Svartalheim, wanted to prove to herself that Loki was really dead, and here she was.

The only thing missing from her wish now was a body…


	8. Svartalfheim

Darcy's head stared swiveling around, her eyes exploring the area with enthusiastic vigor. If she was here on Svartalfheim, if she could make things happen now just by wanting it then that meant Loki's dead body would be here. It had to be; otherwise she wouldn't have been brought here, right? Did it work like that? Whatever the magic was, she didn't see anything in her initial scour. The ruined landscape was way more Desolation of Smaug than she thought it would be because, _hello_, elf worlds are supposed to be all happy-time, beautiful places, or at least that's what the media had jammed into her head ever since she read The Hobbit back in elementary school. Darcy refused to let this get her down yet. She was right about this dammit, she knew it; she had to be. Loki was dead and she would find her proof.

"Okay body, rocks, whatever's in charge here." She said out loud, hanging onto her purpose. It was the lifeline to avoiding full-blown panic. "_Find_ Loki's dead body. I _need_ to see it." When nothing happened, Darcy lifted an eyebrow and waved her hands forward, shooing herself in a random direction. "Well go on, go! Don't got all day feet."

Once again, a whole lot of nothing happened. Darcy sighed, a shiver of trepidation coursing down her spine. What if she'd been wrong? What if Loki _was_ alive? What if she wasn't even right about the whole getting what-you-wish-for aspect of her life now? That settled it. She had to test the theory; that was the only way to be sure. At least that way—if she was right—she'd feel less freaked at being on yet another alien planet with no apparent way home. Although, hadn't Thor been able to just call the Heimer-taxi service? She'd try that if all else failed.

"Right, so how does this work?" The only thing difference in her life, as of late anyway, were the shiny little stones she'd found at the different anomaly sites. They had to be the answer for her newfound powers.

She reached into her pocket and retrieved the wallet. Opening the flap she saw her two shards glittering under the hard plastic. They looked so beautiful in the dying light of this planet, so alive and _real_. She pulled them out, holding them in the palm of her hand before shoving the wallet back in place. They had to be the reason for all the sudden craziness—okay, _extra _craziness—in her life. Even after meeting Thor for the first time, crap hadn't been _this_ insane, and finding these things was the only change. Trying to decide how best to test her theory she considered what to do. She was tired of popping in and out of places, not to mention her stomach wasn't happy about it, so Darcy decided to try something new; something like her little breakfast miracle.

"Alright, how 'bout giving me my jacket—oh and my phone and Jane Device too 'cause I so don't need to hear all about her hard work getting lost again."

Darcy jumped out of her skin for two seconds when the items she wanted appeared right where she imagined they would, _on_ her. The weight of her jacket and the stuff she'd left behind inside of it was just the way she'd left them. She grinned. This was too cool for school. Amazed at how easy and fast it had happened she ran a hand down the front of her jacket just to verify that it was real. Even the damn buttons were closed!

"I am _so_ the next super hero." Darcy said with a cackle. "Okay, okay, one more time. How about a cold can of coke right," she held out her other hand, palm up, "here," then squealed in delight when the can popped into existence right where she'd anticipated, beads of sweat already dripping down the sides and onto her skin.

"Holy hell this _rocks_!" Keeping the shards clutched tightly in her right hand, Darcy opened the can and took a long swallow, the cold fizz a balm for her dry throat.

When the can was halfway empty she let out another sigh, this one far more content than the last as most of her fears had melted away with the proof that she was in total control of the situation. Oh, and that she had awesome new super powers of course; that definitely didn't hurt. And yet…she frowned looking around; Loki's body was still missing, not to mention the fact that somebody else out there who knew about the shards. It was time for answers and Darcy was tired of standing around.

"Alright guys," she talked to the stones in her hand, "I'm guessing I just popped in at the wrong place so lead onward. Take me to where I need to go."

As before, after the black hole back in London, Darcy felt her body compelled to move by some mysterious outside influence, although now at least she understood it was the pieces of gem that were guiding her steps. She didn't resist or even mind this time though, confident her newly acquired gift would take her to Loki's corpse, which she would then take back with her to Earth so Thor could finally bury his brother. The guy deserved to mourn properly.

A short while later Darcy knew she was getting close, she could _feel_ it, just as she had with the floating anomaly at the pickle-building. It dawned on her then, even as she passed by a huge mound of jagged, upended earth, that she was getting close to another shard, and a second later she saw the evidence. Just ahead and floating in the air well within arm's reach was a wavering, horizontal _line._ It was thin, almost impossible to see unless one was actually looking for it, and it looked just like the slick piece of road that's always in the distance when driving. It looked like a thin stretch of wet pavement hovering in the air, and as Darcy drew closer she understood why.

Bending at the knees, she crouched under the shape a little and looked up, gaping in amazement at the sight. What she was staring at was the surface of a lake that couldn't exist, yet there it was just the same, upside down and floating in the air. She stepped out from under it and looked at the line again. There was nothing above it, no bottomless pit like the one she could see when looking at it from below. _Now this is some trippy shit._ Darcy reached out and waved her hand over top, nothing but air in the way.

She crouched under it again and poked a hand up through the surface. "Yep, that's water." she mumbled, pulling her hand back out of the cold liquid to wipe it off on her pants. Darcy stepped out from under it again and looked around. "Alright enough of this." She pointed to the ground, "Loki's body needs to appear right here, right _now_."

Okay so Darcy wasn't as brave as she pretended to be sometimes. Just as the word 'now' left her lips, a dark shape appeared at her feet and she fall backwards with a startled sound that stood somewhere between a shriek and the words 'shit', and 'fuck me'; neither her brain nor mouth could decide so it came out unintelligible, punctuated by the oomph of her hard landing right onto her tailbone.

"Shit, shit, _shit._" Darcy shook her head then laughed at her own stupidity for getting scared after getting exactly what she wished for again. "Jesus Darce, you're so lame sometimes." She admonished while climbing to her feet.

Darcy grew serious a second later though when her eyes sank to the black garbed shape. She frowned, pushing her glasses up higher onto her nose. The shape, well, the _body_, didn't look anything like what it was supposed to. It looked lumpy and uncertain of itself. One second it was solid and _there_, but the next it shimmered like a mirage, the ground underneath showing through. She took a step closer.

"What the hell?"

Steeling her nerves, Darcy crouched down next to the body and reached out. She had to see if it was tangible or not, and more than that she had to see the face. Her hand touched the shoulder, and the body firmed under her the fingers of her left hand—you better believe she kept a death grip on the stones in her right—and she rolled the form onto its back. She shuffled back a step as the body turned over with a soft thud, the head lolling to the side to face her with open, milky eyes, eyes belonging to none other than Loki. Her lip curled in disgust at the expression of pain scrawled across his features, the once-god's lips peeled back to reveal yellowing teeth. His face was gaunt and pale, the skin pulled tight against the bone so he looked more like a skeleton than a man.

"Gross." She whispered but didn't back away. "Well there you have it folks," Darcy continued to no one in particular, flourishing her hand over the corpse, "The one and only Loki ladies and gentlemen, dead as a doornail just like Thor promised. He'll be here all night."

"I _am_ flattered."

An electric flare of terror raced down Darcy's spine as she stood and spun on her heels toward the sound of an unexpected voice at her back, her eyes landing instantly on the man standing just a foot or so behind her. Black hair fell in loose waves around his shoulders. He stood with back straight and shoulders tense like he was ready to spring forward. Pale green eyes, cold but curious, scrutinized her. It was the same man from the building before, the same man from the news in New York, the same man who couldn't decide on whether or not he wanted to be real or an illusion on the ground at her feet. It was Loki.

"Of all the things in all the realms that you could conjure, you choose to create a mockery of _me._ Why is that, I wonder?" He didn't sound even a little curious.

"You're dead." Darcy snapped, more for herself than him. She wanted to back away but her feet wouldn't move yet.

"Clearly not."

"You're _supposed_ to be dead." She argued, wanting to say more, but that was really the most important part. He _had_ to be dead dammit, the alternative was too freaky to accept.

The corner of his mouth curved up into a dark smirk, "I rarely do what's expected of me."

"Thor _watched_ you die." She insisted. Maybe she could argue him into the grave where he belonged.

"_Thor_," he spat the name as if it were a foul taste on his tongue, "Could watch the moon rise and still insist it noon if he had it stuck in his head. His judgment on _anything_ is scarcely credible." His eyes glanced at the body for a second, flitting back to hers after, "Is that the reason for this poor caricature; an insistence on seeing me dead?" He couldn't have sounded more bored, and if Darcy hadn't feared for life and limb she would have smacked the cocky sneer right off his face.

Still his question raised other concerns, and Darcy frowned. She didn't know _what_ the body meant, but the indisputable fact—cause let's face it, Darcy might have leaned toward the side of crazy, but she wasn't hallucinating-dead-gods kind of crazy—that Loki was alive and kicking was more than enough to send whatever coherent thoughts she had spiraling into a pool of unanswered questions. How had he survived? Who did Thor watch die? Was Frigga really alive too now? How was that possible? What did it mean that he knew about the whole magicking shit up thing? And most importantly was he planning on offing her because Darcy had no intentions on dying on Svart-whatever-the-hell-heim!

She shrugged, a nervous grin blooming on her face as she quirked an eyebrow and answered, "Can't blame a girl for trying, can you?"

"Did you really think summoning a mere image of me would be my end?" The look of distain she'd seen from the television passed over his features, and it was then that Darcy realized just how _tall_ this dude was. He literally loomed over her, his body lean and slender, even under all the gaudy armor. She wasn't really short for a girl but this dude was definitely over six foot, the armor probably adding another six inches just out of pure intimidation.

Darcy shrugged again. "Maybe."

His lip curled, "You really know nothing." Loki laughed then, the sound cruel and lacking any hint of actual humor, "How a mortal such as you came to possess pieces of a soul gem is an anomaly in itself."

Darcy tucked the words 'soul gem' somewhere safe. She'd need to find out about that later, and while she could have asked Loki about it she wasn't getting the real chatty-vibes from him. He hadn't killed her yet, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try at any second, and whether she wanted to admit it or not this fucker was alive and kicking, and totally no worth the risk. Darcy knew she could leave at any second and god if she didn't want to, but the anomaly floating to the side kept her from doing just that. Terrified or not she wanted the piece of rock she could feel hiding inside of it. No, scratch that, she _needed_ it, and if he had the same shards of stone she had, she could only assume he was feeling the same thing. _Bet that's why he's here._ She'd be damned if she was going to let him get his hands on this one, the anger she'd felt before, back in London, flaring up with a vengeance.

"Maybe you just don't know us mortals as well as you thought ya did, eh champ?" She cracked back with a smirk of her own.

"I know your species better than I'd like." He answered back with a scowl. "Guileless chattel is all you are, and all you ever will be."

"I'll have you know I've got plenty of guile, buddy." Darcy made a small shuffle to her right, closer to the portal.

His eyes darted from her, to the anomaly, to the body then back to her again, the display so quick she almost missed it. "While I'm loath to admit it, perhaps you do have some semblance of intelligence. Giving Thor and his foolish comrades my body would certainly make my death that much more irrevocable."

"What—no way! You can't keep pretending to be dead dude, so not cool, and if you think I'm keeping my mouth shut about this you are abso-freaking-lutely off your gourd. The second I get home this is getting tweeted, tumbled, dug, red and facebooked."

His lip curled into another cold half-smile, "If they have my remains as evidence, your word will be worth little more than senseless ramblings."

"Oh they'll believe me. They'll know it's fake." She managed another step over, pretending to shift her weigh.

"Will they?" He answered a little too fast for her liking. "You hardly strike me as a class of character they'd consider notable, and the body _won't_ be a mere imitation so poor as yours. I could fashion it as real as I'd like."

"Then I can unfashion it." Darcy challenged, ignoring the first part of his response because what the hell did he know anyway? Dude couldn't even conquer the earth with an alien army _and_ super powers.

He seemed to suddenly see her for the first time after that, his eyes taking in her entire body with a slow inspection that wasn't sexual in nature, although it still managed to bring a little heat to her face. She was being judged. His smile, the cruel one that never seemed to change, softened a little. Loki looked more curious than cruel now when he answered, and it was a strange look on him.

"Perhaps you could."

"My, my," Darcy sniped back, unable to help herself, "is that respect mine ears doth perceive?"

The cruelty was back again, and before Darcy could move or speak or scream or do _anything_, he was in her face with his hands wrapped around each of her wrists, holding them down to her sides. The movement was so unexpected that she could only blink, even her heart skipping a beat from the surprise. He glared down at her, his face all callousness and hard angles while his lips were thin with barely concealed anger.

"Do not mistake my grudging concession as respect mortal. You will yield those fragments to me or—"

Loki never got to finish his sentence as the present caught up to Darcy with a flash. Her fear from the assault turned to pure fury, and all she could see for a moment, all she could think of, was a taser good enough to bring down Thor. A part of her knew now that the only reason it had worked the first time was because Thor had been temporarily humanized, but that didn't stop her from trying to call up a supernatural-powered taser strong enough to knock a god on his ass. As Loki neared the end of his threat Darcy felt cold metal in her left hand, and without giving it a second thought she wrenched her arm forward—a direction he wasn't expecting—and stabbed the twin spikes straight into his side, the summoned metal sliding past his armor and to the skin below.

With almost comical effect, Loki's face froze mid-sentence and his eyes widened, his entire body going rigid before falling backwards into convulsions. Darcy didn't even wait for him to hit the ground before she pivoted to the right and lurched beneath the anomaly. Again, without considering the consequences—because really, acting first and thinking later was her typical modus operandi—Darcy launched herself up into the surface of the lake floating overhead. She broke through the water and fell up in much the same way a person would dive down, her momentum carrying her through the cold darkness.

Kicking her legs, Darcy navigated by instinct alone, determined to get to the shard before willing herself away. It was hers goddammit. Loki was _not_ getting his hands on this one! She kicked and swam with all the strength she had, daring only a single glance back. Some ways through the dark waters she could see a circle of red ground below her, the entrance to this impossible lake shuddering with waves created by her entrance. No Loki though, so she turned back around and continued on. A few strokes later the chill of the water was sinking into her bones like icy daggers. Every movement grew more painful than the last, but Darcy wasn't giving up, not when she was so close already.

Even without being able to see, she could feel a distant heat growing closer by the second. It reached out to her fingers and called to the other shards in her clenched fist, leading her straight to it. Kick left, kick right, swipe left arm, swipe right, and repeat ad infinitum. _Where is it, where is it!_ Darcy was starting to grow frantic, her lungs beginning to burn from the strain of, well you know, not getting _any freaking air_, and oh god, if drowning wasn't still up there in the top ten and likely on its way to numero uno. _No_! She was _not_ dying here dammit! She was so damn close!

A few more feet forward and Darcy knew it was within reach. She moved her left arm forward, fingers open to grab for it when a flash of green light set the water ablaze. For a long second the lake was turned into liquid emerald, the water stretching out to every side for miles until it grew dark again at the end of the light's reach. That second filled Darcy with a shiver of anxiety so absolute it almost froze her. Contrary to what should have been expected, the fear wasn't from what the light might have signified, but instead it blossomed from the stony realization of how far she was from escape. If she lost the shards now she would die; it was just as simple as that. The second passed along with the fear as the light faded away, and Darcy's fingers started to curl around the shard just as a hand curled around her ankle.

Several things happened after that, the timing too blurred to navigate with any semblance of logic. Fingers, Loki's fingers, wrapped around Darcy's ankle with a grip so crushing she was sure it would fracture her bones at any second. Holding fast to the shards she _knew_, with every ounce of her being, that he couldn't hurt her. The grip didn't hurt anymore. She was blind and losing the battle to breathe, so Darcy thought of the only other person she could right now: Thor. He was the epitome of safety, the white knight to Loki's black wizard, the head to his brother's tail, and with Loki chasing after her he was the one person she wanted to see more than any other. The grip disappeared from her hand and there was a rush of water and wind and the sensation of falling down the drain of her tub. She was in a vortex when her lungs could take no more, her gasp for air sucking in water so cold Darcy thought it must have been full of razor blades courtesy the god o'lies.

She slammed onto a hard surface then, gasping and sputtering, her body trying to dispel the water while taking in air, unsure of which to do first so attempting both. Darcy tried to get her hands under her—one still forever fisted around the gems she would die trying to get—but they slipped forward, the ground under her slick and strangely smooth. Body wracked with pain and a chill so bone deep that she couldn't stop shaking, it took Darcy several seconds to get enough control of her muscles to even lift her head and look around. She didn't have a freaking _clue_ where she'd ended up, Thor her last thought before all the whooshing and almost-drowning.

When Darcy's head rose and her eyes blinked away the temporary blindness the new and sudden light had given her, she could have expected a lot of things, but staring at Thor, Jane and a little laptop with Erik's face—all of them staring back at her with stark surprise—wasn't exactly what she'd been anticipating to find. She coughed again, more water coming up, and tilted her head to the left. And oh hey, Tony mother-fucking-Stark was here too, along with oh-my-god-Captain America. To the right, and yes, nobody said a damn thing during the few seconds this entire display took place, Darcy found a redhead, a man with piercing blue eyes and an older dude that was still pretty hot even while rocking a few dashes of gray at the temples. Funny that they all looked a little wet though…

"_Darcy?_" Jane sounded like she'd just met Santa for the first time.

Trying to answer, Darcy only managed to cough again and nod, both hands slipping forward again so that Thor had to reach out and steady her to keep her from slamming face down onto the ground—nope, not ground, a freaking table; she was on a conference damn table. It was then that she noticed both Jane and Thor were looking a little damp too; apparently everyone at the table was, now that she gave them all a second once over, and they all wore the same what-the-hell-just-happened expression.

They could join the club. She had no idea how she'd get out of this one, or what she could even say to backpedal out of this. Trying to come up with any number of good excuses, Darcy's thoughts were derailed when a deep voice at her back cleared his throat. Craning her neck and twisting her upper body, Darcy looked over to see a tall black man in an awesome leather jacket, and even cooler eye patch, watching her like a panther. He was like the modernized version of Odin who could wield a shotgun instead of a sword, and oh boy was he intimidating as hell. _Must be an eye patch thing_, she decided.

"I believe you have some explaining to do Miss Lewis." The man said, more authority in that one sentence than all of her teachers, plus both parents, had managed to throw at her for the entirely of her childhood and adolescence.

Darcy laughed then. She didn't want to, but nervous habits are hard to break and dammit she just couldn't help herself. The chortle came out with a choke as more water purged from her lungs, her body heaving from the efforts while mighty Thor held her up and lovely Jane was kind enough to hold her hair back, her boss finally shaking out of the shock of seeing her prized intern fall out of nothingness and straight into the middle of a meeting. It was like getting drunk in the dorms all over again, only with less liquor and midterms and more explaining to do. She really did have damn good timing though, didn't she?


	9. Explanations

Explanations; now there was something easier said than done. Staring over her shoulder at the one-eyed man in leather, Darcy tried to think of a few different ways to handle her current dilemma, her head still buzzing from the pulse of adrenaline and fear and anger, oh and don't forget the shock of almost drowning. Her emotions were pulling in several directions at once, but all Darcy could really think about were the three shards of rock clenched tightly inside her right fist. _Suck on _that_ Loki you zombie son of a bitch (no offense Frigga!)._ She'd beaten him dammit and it felt good despite all the other things wrong with her at the moment. The stares from around the table were weighing heavy on her though and Darcy knew she'd have to answer with something fast. She was trying to think of some kind of excuse when it dawned on her where she had to be.

"Holy crap dude," she croaked, all the recent coughing having done a number on her throat, "am I in New York?"

"Oh my _god_, Darcy," Jane started, finally letting go of her hair and pulling Darcy's attention back to the front of the room, "How in the world did you get here—what happened—are you okay—where did you—"

"Whoa there Jane," Darcy interrupted with a rasping chuckle, "deep breath; one question at a time."

"Are you injured, Darcy?" Thor asked, frowning down at her, his hand still steadying her body, warm and strong against her shoulder. She wondered fleetingly if, once humans got the whole cloning thing right, he'd mind having a twin.

Hearing his question a feeling of fingers clenching her ankle sent shivers up her body, but Darcy shook her head, the sensation nothing more than a memory, "No, I'm cool buddy, just a lot a wet here."

"JARVIS have that girl at the front desk—you know the one with the short skirt and stilettos?—have her bring a towel; make that two."

"Right away, sir." A voice from the ceiling answered with a smooth BBC-English accent. Darcy abruptly wanted a ceiling butler of her own now and pictured, for a single crazy second, some old man with a cape and tuxedo crawling through the air vents with a silver tray in one hand, balancing a glass of champagne in the center; the cape was for his ninja-ness because come on, anybody who could serve you from the ceiling had to have mad talent. She scrapped the image as soon as it appeared, a little terrified by the idea that said butler might materialize via stray desire alone. She really needed to get a handle on her brain.

"So, New York huh?" Darcy repeated in an effort to distract herself.

Jane grinned, her relief obviously outweighing any other emotion she felt, "Yeah, New York. Stark—I mean, the _Avengers_ Tower to be exact. Where have you _been?_ Your GPS lost signal hours ago and nobody could reach you on the phone. Director Fury told us the last place you'd been seen was in the restaurant at 30 St. Mary Axe in London, which just happened to coincide with another variance glitch. We thought that—what _happened_?"

"A question we'd _all_ like answered." The same rough voice of mister mean and optically impaired intoned.

Before she could provide that answer, there was a knock at the door. Tony-motherfucking-Stark, and yeah, that was his permanent name so far as Darcy was concerned, stood and went to it. When he opened the door there was a pretty brunette on the other side with a stack of towels in her arms. The man hadn't been lying about her short skirt and stilettos; chick looked ready for a grade A porn! Her eyes widened as they met Darcy's, but the towels were snatched and door closed so fast after that it was hard to tell whether the woman had even registered what she'd seen. Maybe she'd just file this away as a kinky, secret meeting between the boss and his closest pervert friends. Tony-MF-Stark rejoined them and dropped the stack beside her.

"Get this on before you warp any wood sweetheart." He glanced over to the side, presumably to the men behind her before adding with a wink, "Or ruin any of the furniture."

"May I remind you sir that Ms. Potts currently has you monitored for any and all behavior that may result in a sexual harassment lawsuit." The same disembodied voice from before stated.

"Does she?" He answered, an expression of shock filling his face, albeit it was so over the top that it was clear he'd known that already, or simply didn't care. "Guess that's why we pay the highest retainer fees eh?"

"_Stark_." Cyclops warned. His already impatient voice sounded even more impatient if that was at all possible.

"_Fury_." Iron Man—no seriously, the one and only guys—freaking _Iron Man_, said with an amused smile before taking his seat again. At least somebody was enjoying the show.

"Can you stand?" Thor asked, pulling his hand back.

Without tipping over or slipping ungracefully, Darcy nodded then reached for one of the towels with her left hand, staunchly refusing to even consider opening her right. Sliding only once after that, she managed to climb off of the table and to the floor, one towel wrapped around her shoulders and the other draped over her head so that it looked like she was wearing a cowl. She stared at the people sitting at the table while she ruffled her own hair. Man they were a serious bunch, but holy hell she was really, truly, honest to god standing there with freaking _super heroes!_ Her dad would totally never believe this, not that she could tell him anyway but still. Jane had planned to bring her here eventually, but standing here now so impromptu was sort of like stumbling onto the red carpet.

"We're waiting for answers, Miss Lewis." Dude at the end of the table reminded her, as if she could forget with all the hard eyes aimed her direction. At least the light overhead wasn't florescent.

"Give her a minute!" Jane snapped, getting a few looks of her own, particularly from the redheaded Prison Barbie™ who didn't seem to find any part of this situation comical.

"I just fell through another portal, that's all." Darcy answered with a half-hearted shrug. It wasn't a total lie right?

"Where was this portal?" Captain—holy balls he was sexy even out of uniform—America asked.

"My bathtub, obviously." Darcy answered with a straight face, her eyes closing for a second as she rubbed the towel around on her head like she really had just stepped out of the shower. Dignity was better spent on people _not_ crashing board meetings or whatever this was, with half a lake on their heels.

"You seem a little overdressed for that." Tony-MF-Stark replied with a smirk.

"I'm a never-nude." She answered without missing a beat. "Don't judge."

"Darcy this is serious!" Jane passed the frustration she'd thrown at the one-eyed-man back to her.

"Okay, okay." She whined, raising both hands into the air, one open and the other still fisted. "Getting into serious mode now; the portal was on—" And here was the moment of truth folks. Tell the truth, lie a little, or lie through her freaking teeth like that time she'd shaved the cat and tried to blame it on Santa 'cause, and yes, this is exactly what she said, "_your cookies sucked mom."_ Okay so nobody said she was brilliant back then, but times changed and she was a helluva good liar now. "—Asgard. I found another wormhole thing at the pickle building, fell through to Thor's place, met some of his friends then got sucked back here with a cloud or something apparently."

"What's in your hand?" Prison Barbie™ asked, her voice so flat and face so unreadable that Darcy wasn't sure whether the chick was onto her or just making menial conversation.

Regardless, the question sent an immediate alarm off in her head. If they knew about the stones, if they _found out_ about the stones they'd try to take them from her! Darcy wasn't a bad person by nature, and she certainly didn't have any intention of causing havoc—okay, well not _too_ much havoc anyway; nothing that would hurt people—with her newly granted abilities, but she'd risked her damn life for these things. As far as she was concerned they were hers and hers alone, and she'd be damned if anyone was going to take them from her. Without even meaning to she wished that they were hidden somewhere on her that couldn't be seen by anybody trying to search her, and that included any cavity checks because if airports were willing to do it then she damn sure wouldn't put it past these guys.

Even as the desire bloomed in her head a sudden and instant pain stabbed into her chest. It was like getting punched with a dagger, not that she'd ever been before, but it wasn't hard to imagine the sensation of metal sliding through skin and bone. Unable to stop herself, Darcy grabbed at her chest and winced, bending forward before the rush of endorphins came to dull the pain down to a more manageable throb.

Blood was rushing in her ears, but Darcy caught the ass end of Jane's question, "—you okay?" and it was enough to go off of, never mind whatever the hell had just happened to her.

Brushing her boss's hand away, Darcy stood, her face still contorted in discomfort even as she forced a smile, "I'm fine. Just, I don't know, probably an after effect from sliding or something. It's cool, I'm good."

Her eyes moved over to Red's, and in that second Darcy understood what had transpired. Her wish had come true again, and she really, _really_ needed to get a damn handle on her thoughts before something worse happened. That was a worry for near-future Darcy. In the meantime she could feel the emptiness in her hand now, and with a half-smile that was probably cockier than it should have been—_Gee, remind you of anyone?_ Loki's smile flashing in her head—she opened her right hand for the whole room to see.

"And nothing." She added to the gesture, "I don't have anything." Red didn't look convinced, and neither did the man to her side who looked a little familiar, but as far as Darcy was concerned she was in the clear and they couldn't prove anything unless they cut her open. She didn't know exactly where the shards had tucked themselves away at, but it was definitely somewhere internal.

"How did you end up _here_?" The man sitting next to Cyclops asked, his oh so serious eyes studying her. "We didn't get any indications of an anomaly nearby." He wasn't anywhere near as hot as Captain America, but for an older dude he definitely still had game. Yeah she'd hit that. Darcy gave him a lopsided grin and shrugged.

"Who knows? That's probably some Jane and Erik territory. I'm just lab-bitch." Everyone continued to stare, and Darcy was beginning to feel like some carnival freak show. "Well look guys, I'm soaking here and really just want to find a dryer to climb inside of or something. Can I go crash somewhere while you guys talk this out; you can find me if there's any more questions or whatever?"

"I think it would be best if you came with—"

"JARVIS will keep an eye on her, won't you buddy? She won't leave the building." Tony-MF-Stark interrupted Eye-Patch. "There's a lobby down the hall with some nice couches you can go nap on."

"Awesome." Darcy grinned at her new favorite hero—oh who are we kidding, he's always been her favorite because _hello_, shiny toys, tons of money and a flare for the extreme; what wasn't to love?—and started to toward the door.

"Are you sure that—" Jane started to ask, but before she could finish Red stood and stated in one of those tones that dared anybody to try and argue, "I'll help her find the lobby."

"Do that." Eye-Patch said, as if anybody had even asked for permission to escort her. Did they even care that she really didn't need help finding a freaking room down the hall? Although, she got the feeling it wasn't Red's concern that she might be directionally challenged that prompted the action.

Without another word her and Red left the room and headed down the hall together. They walked side by side, Darcy stealing sideways glances at her new _friend_ every time the towel swished backwards. The woman was supermodel sexy, which wasn't surprising if she was part of Team Avenger; apparently ugly heroes were a no-no. She wondered if the red hair was natural though; it was pretty intense but gorgeous. Maybe she'd dye her hair sometime; plain Jane—_sorry Jane!_—brown wasn't all that exciting.

"I don't know why you lied yet, but I will find out." Red said out of the blue, her eyes not so much as flickering in Darcy's direction.

"Huh?" Yep, that speech class really paid off.

"There's the lobby." Red finished, waving her hand forward just as they stepped out of the hallway. The continuation was so fluid and unexpected, so not like the first part, that Darcy almost doubted she'd heard it at all. Was it her guilt from lying coming back up with a flare? _No way_. She never felt guilty about lying in the past. This chick was just seriously sharp, and Darcy would have to keep on her toes going forward. How had the woman even been able to read her like that?

"Oh uh, thanks, I guess." She turned to face the woman with one of her eyebrows raised, so not in the mood for a private interrogation by Prison Barbie™.

Red did nothing more than give a curt nod before turning on a heel and heading back the way she came. Darcy watched her go. What the hell. Was that it? Why even say something like that and then leave? She shook her head, deciding to worry about it all later, her exhaustion so extreme now that all the adrenaline had drained away she wouldn't have been surprised about falling asleep right on the floor. Facing the lobby again, Darcy had another flare of appreciation for the multi-billionaire.

As promised, there was an arrangement of black leather couches around a gorgeous glass coffee table that probably cost more than her entire years rent. The sofas were the kind with huge seat wells that could suck a person in, the cushions large and fluffed up with whatever artificial softness they could squeeze inside. On the opposite side of the room was a small refreshment area complete with mini-fridge, sink and microwave, the smell of coffee permeating from one of those single serving coffee makers, the kind Darcy could never afford in this lifetime. Although, she grinned, it could be something she could create now if she so wished it. Darcy shook her head. _No, no more wishes you, go get some freaking sleep already before you pass out like dad on a Friday night._

Without another thought or word, Darcy made her way over to one of the couches and fell onto it face first, the cold leather slapping her cheek softly while her damp hair pressed against the other, towel landing on top to cover it all and block out the light. She was out seconds later, the black velvet of dreamless sleep pulling her down until every fear, concern and worry melted away. Babies didn't sleep this good.

Two seconds after she'd fallen asleep—or at least that's what it freaking felt like—Darcy was startled awake, complete with standard cry of 'holy shit!', by Thor's face looming over hers, her name leaving his lips. She pushed further into the couch to get away, a split second of confused panic filling her with the warning that somebody was attacking her. The panic passed just as fast as it had come and she breathed out a sigh of relief once the truth dawned on her and her heart stopped jackhammering against her ribs. It was just the big man waking her up. _Chill out Darce!_

"My apologies Darcy, I had not—"

She sat up and started waving off his words, "No, no, you don't have to say sorry," she interrupted with a laugh, "was just my brain going full-stupid for a sec, no biggie."

He gave a nod before taking a seat on the other side of the coffee table. He leaned forward against his knees. "Did you rest well?"

Darcy yawned, shrugged then answered with a smile, "Well enough. What's up big guy? Meeting adjourned already? I miss anything juicy? Where's Jane?"

Thor smiled, the look of fondness on his face practically melting her heart. "The meeting ended some hours ago. We thought it best to let you sleep a while longer."

"Damn. I must have been out cold."

He gave a nod before his eyes grew darker. There was a heaviness to his features that Darcy hadn't seen since the bar back in London when he'd been talking about—_oh shit, Loki; he doesn't know his brother's alive! Well fuck me_—Loki. She felt a ball of emotion knot up inside her throat, but she didn't say anything. She wanted to hear whatever it was he had to say first before she laid the news on him. Good grief this was going to be tough, and how would she even explain it without—

"Darcy, is there more to the tale you told us before?" He asked, interrupting her thoughts. Any desire to lie vanished from her tongue when she looked into his eyes, all of his honesty and honor bared naked for her to see. It was one thing to bend the truth to a group of people who all thought she was going to lie anyway, but Thor…Thor was searching her for the truth and it felt _evil_ to give him anything but that, so Darcy's smile fell a little and she nodded.

"A lot more, actually." She answered, her eyes going down to her hands for a second as she wrung them together in her lap. When she looked up again she found Thor watching her, waiting patiently for her to continue. She sighed then laughed when she realized how childish the next part would sound. "I was kind of afraid to tell everyone the truth in there though; afraid of how they'd take it."

"You have no reason to fear me, no matter where your adventures have taken you." He offered her a half-smile. "I have found myself in many a strange, and oft times unpleasant, situation throughout my life, and were it not for those who trust and care for me most, these occasions might have ended ill in my favor. I trust you Darcy; you are a friend to Jane and to Asgard, and I would hope that you consider yourself a friend to me as well."

"Of course I do!" She blurted, moved by the big man's mini-speech. "You're awesome Thor, how could I not? It's just—" Darcy let out a heavy sigh, steeling herself for the conversation to come. Yep, fun times ahead. "What do you know about soul gems?" She finished. It was as good a place to start as any, and hopefully his answer would give her time to grow the balls to tell him about Loki.

Thor leaned back, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. It wasn't hard to tell that this was definitely not the way he'd expected her to start. His eyebrows pinched into a frown a second later. "They are items of legend on my world, six jewels of great power." He seemed to settle on telling her about them before asking any questions of his own, leaning forward against his knees again as he spoke.

"There was once a god of the gods, a being who existed before even the universe itself. He was, the stories say, the last or perhaps the only one of his kind, and lonely beyond words. With none to share his eternity with he grew tired of the solitary reality he faced and ended himself. Upon his destruction six gems came into existence, each one granted a unique power that this god of gods had possessed. Scattered across the realms they were soon found by lesser beings, creatures who had felt the life extinguish and reform, beings that were greedy for the power promised by the jewels they found. Over time, history has been lost and great civilizations felled forever; most traces of the jewels missing or forgotten. Those jewels are the soul gems, better known as Infinity Stones by the people of Asgard."

"And they're real?"

"Yes. Some have even been found once more." He chuckled then shook his head, "Two by the mortals of Midgard in fact."

Ding. Light bulb. "The Tesseract and that Aether stuff!" Darcy blurted, excited by her own brilliance and deductive powers; not that Thor hadn't given her a giant hint or anything.

He gave a nod. "Yes. My father has vowed to keep the Stones safe, their discovery most troubling."

"Why?"

Thor's smile returned, although this one was more teasing than the last, "I believe the round to ask a question has come to me now?" It was a gentle suggestion, but Darcy got the point. She owed him something back, and so she sighed and agreed.

"Yeah, your turn."

"For what reason do you show this interest in soul gems?" He frowned, studying her face before adding, "And I would ask where you heard this term."

"Right." Darcy pushed the towel that had still been draped over her head down to her shoulders. It wouldn't do her any good looking like a fool while dropping the bomb on Thor about his brother and all the other crap that had been going on. "Well, I think the best way to answer that is to just come right out and say it." Deep breath. "I think I might kind of, sort of, maybe have a piece of one of these soul gem things and your brother is totally alive and he's got some pieces too, or at least one that I know of and we sort of fought a little on Svartalfheim and that's where I was before I crashed your super-secret superhero meeting 'cause I was drowning and couldn't think of anywhere else to go."

That phrase, 'quiet enough to hear a pin drop'? Yeah it had nothing on the moment of silence that hung between Darcy and Thor after she said her piece in one long, streaming sentence. When she finished she took the breath she had avoided while talking and waited for his reaction. She could actually _see_ him stringing her words together in his mind, probably repeating them a few times just to make sure he understood them all. His frown grew deeper, and Thor slowly sat up again, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Loki lives?"

Both of Darcy's eyebrows lifted, her inability to determine what was going to happen next filling her up with all flavors of nervousness. "Yeah."

"And you believe he wields an Infinity Stone?"

"Not a _whole_ one," she tried to assure him, "just, you know, pieces of one."

"And you believe to carry the same?"

"Yes. _Pieces_ of one," she reminded him; no need to have him freak out more than necessary, "Not the whole thing."

"Show them to me."

"I can't." Darcy answered before she even thought it through. She _could_, she _knew_ she could, but every fiber of her being resisted the idea of bringing the stones out again. Against all logic she was terrified of somebody taking them from her, and for a single moment she wondered if it was the gem shards giving her that feeling instead of her own selfishness. It was impossible to distinguish so she pushed the worry away for later, the surge of anxiety at being separated from them so strong she could taste the bitterness of it. "But I can show you what they can do." She offered after.

His face unreadable, Thor gave her a short nod, his eyes so intensely focused on her that she wouldn't have been surprised had she gone up in flames in the next few seconds. Soaking in the wave of relief at not having to bring the stones out—could she even force herself to do it?—Darcy grinned as she held out a single hand, palm up, and wished up a platter of the same meat, cheese and bread that Volstagg had served her back on Asgard. If this didn't convince Thor, she wasn't sure what would.

As expected, the plate, solid and metal like she'd imagined, appeared resting on her palm as if it had always been there, the surface covered in salted and dried meat slices, wedges of cheese and an uncut loaf of dark bread. Thor's eyes grew wide at the sight, his mouth falling open a little, and damn if Darcy didn't feel pleased with herself at shocking the god of thunder again, albeit in a different kind of way this time. Still holding back his words, Thor reached out with one hand toward the plate, hesitated for a second then grabbed the loaf of bread.

He brought it closer and held it between both hands, testing the weight before he lifted it to his nose. After inhaling, he lowered the bread again and tore it in half, dark crumbs falling to the carpet while the soft interior pulled easily apart. He stared down at the loaf and shook his head. "You were indeed in the company of my comrades." When he looked up and found her beaming at him he continued, "This is summer wine bread."

"Volstagg said it was one of your favorites."

"It is." Thor answered with a soft smile filled with memories. The smile was short lived, fading before he asked, "You're certain my brother lives?"

Darcy snorted, her grin dying at the memory of Loki grabbing onto her and the fury she'd felt at the chance that he would get to the stone piece before her. "Yeah I'm sure. I had a serious close encounter of the third kind with the guy; tall, long hair, green eyes and a shit eating grin amiright?"

Thor let out a deep breath and nodded. "That is Loki then, and circumstances are far worse than first I feared." He stood, dropped the bread back onto the platter then held a hand out to her. "Come. We must tell the others."

Darcy wished the plate and food away then lifted an eyebrow as she reached for his hand, "Well this is should to be fun."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I just want to give a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far! There's something wholly satisfying about other people enjoying the story as much as I enjoy writing it, so thanks again for the kind words! I want to apologize if this chapter just seemed like a massive info dump and I sincerely hope it didn't come off that way. I actually wrote it all last night in my excitement to finally get some questions answered at last. I have such a hard time waiting to post crap after it's been written _ So sorry if my updates are erratic.

Anyway I really hope everyone likes it so far and sorry if it's a little slow paced, we're getting there I promise! Thanks for sticking with me this far and I promise there IS an eventual Darcy/Loki relationship, I just refuse to rush something that will logically take time to build.


	10. Plans, What Plans?

**PRE-NOTE:** I just want to make it clear that this is NOT an 'official' chapter. There is ZERO story progression in this chapter, it's quite literally all of the events from the beginning until the end of chapter 8 under Loki's POV instead. I wrote this as a personal exercise to keep track of his character and thoughts, and only posted it in the meantime while I'm working on the next chapter. So again, if you don't want to read this (it's an overlapping timeline), you don't have to, and you won't miss anything at all.

Thanks!

* * *

ONE MONTH AGO

The scheme had been wretchedly simple. Nothing should have knocked it awry or disrupted those well laid plans. They had been carefully thought out and meticulously devised, each flaw found and every perforation sealed. Even as he lay dying in his brother's arms, Loki's mind had woven together the next direction of his life would take, knowing full well that he could survive these wounds even if other Aesir—momentarily forgetting his true heritage—might have succumbed to them. As far as the universe would be concerned Loki's life would end here; both Thor and the mortal had borne witness to it, and they would spread word of his fate to all the realms. How lucky for him.

It was an act of selfishness and necessity. Those on Midgard would no longer seek justice for the crimes they felt he'd committed against them—although Loki believed yet that they might have flourished under his rule—and in turn their allies would no longer be wary of his presence. Odin would no longer look to imprison him for the near genocide of the Frost Giants and his momentary lapse of judgment. Most important of all however, was that word would eventually reach The Other and his master, and with Loki Laufeyson, once Loki Odinson no more, they would have no need to scour the cosmos for him. He wasn't a coward by nature, but Loki was no fool. He treasured his life, whatever tatters still remained of it, enough to abide living in the shadows until he could formulate a way to be free of the consequences his broken alliance had birthed.

It had unfortunately taken some time for Loki's body to heal completely, his injuries more severe than he would ever admit. The magic necessarily to mend all that had been broken was exhausting, but sometime later Loki found that was he alone on Svartalfheim and newly deceased so far as any knew. Staring up at the auburn tinted sky from his place on the ground, Loki gave an empty grin to the air. It was liberating, this feeling of freedom, and although he had not fulfilled his desire for vengeance against Malekith directly, Loki knew that his brother would finish the deed, if he had not already. It wasn't as satisfying as he would have liked, but his mother was dead and he lived on. His grieving set aside, Loki desired very much to keep the latter fact in effect for some time still.

It was this thought of Thor and Frigga that put into Loki the strange desire for recompense. The final words his brother had shared with him and the affection bared so openly on the oaf's face had left him with an ache for the family he'd lost in every sense of the word. He would find a way to repay his brother before leaving Asgard forever, if not for the misplaced love the warrior still showed for him than for the love their mother carried for them both unto her dying breath. She had never doubted his fondness for Thor, even as it wavered in the wake of his insanity, and to do nothing seemed a dishonor to her memory. This last debt would be paid.

Loki climbed to his feet and dusted the dried earth from his clothes, the length of time having passed since his _death_ somewhat of a mystery. Glancing down he could see the steps his brother and the mortal woman, Jane Foster, had taken after leaving his body, and so he followed after them, wondering where they might lead. He found a cave soon thereafter, the floor littered with Midgardian oddities and the faint trace of magic still singing the air. There had been a portal here. Loki smirked at the mess strewn at his feet; the mortals with their worthless trinkets and colorful baubles; such a pathetic waste of resources. He would have ended that had he ruled them.

"A pity." He whispered the regret to no one in particular.

Eyes wandering the cave, the portal they'd found closed already since the convergence seemed over now, Loki's eyes stopped on a glint coming from the wall. He moved closer, leaning forward for a better inspection. Stuck between the stone, wedged in as if pressed through by some great force, was a piece of rock that seemed quite out of place. The mountain surrounding it was dark and unexceptional, but the gem glittering between it was a touch of gold and eventide shades. It caught the light of the sun at his back, glowing like a small star teetering along the edges of death. Loki could not resist the urge to take it. As soon as his fingers grasped the gem Loki realized it was something extraordinary. It sang with old magic against his skin, warm and whispering promises of power.

Knowing he would look into the stone, its origin and ability later, Loki slid the object into his breast pocket and left the cave. Somehow he knew there would be nothing else to find there, his millennia of experiences lending to his trust in the instinct that he could feel coiling within his bowels. He believed there was a Midgard term for the sensation: a gut feeling; crude perhaps, but accurate. Setting his curiosity aside for later, Loki made his way toward the breach between realms that he'd led Thor and the mortal through not long ago. It was time to go home one last time.

After dismissing his brother in a far kinder way than their father would have, Loki slipped away from the throne before Odin's return. The old king had taken to spending most of his time in the chambers he had shared with Frigga, the loss of his queen weighing heavy on his heart and body. Loki knew that Thor would speak to nobody else on his way out of Asgard, the prince's farewells having already been given before the meeting with Odin. It was during these farewells that Loki had come across Thor and heard of his intentions, and it was this eavesdropping that elicited his reaction to masquerade as the All-Father.

Odin never would have allowed Thor to abdicate the throne, even in his current state of depression. He would have taken matters into his own hands first, perhaps even going so far as to eliminate the mortal. Of course, Loki didn't _know_ these things for certain, but he _had_ known Odin long enough to understand that the throne of Asgard was more important than family and friend alike. The All-Father would never have abided having no heirs, but Thor was ever too thick headed to even consider that. His brother would believe in Odin until the end, and so Loki gave Thor the gift of freedom that he too enjoyed, freedom from the claws of Asgard and an old, bitter king.

There was of course, a moment of hesitation before he stood from the throne. He could easily have stayed there. He could kill Odin and dispose of the body or keep him trapped somewhere, alive but incapacitated. The idea of ruling Asgard, as he'd been promised for the whole of his life, was indeed alluring, but Loki had no desire to rule under the disguise of another. If people were to bow in his presence, it would be because he, Loki Laufeyson, commanded their fear and respect, not some mask he hid behind. No, he would remain dead as previously intended until the time for rebirth was ripe.

But even the best laid plans seem to have room for mishap. Loki had intended to leave Asgard after his encounter with Thor. He had intended to leave the realm and find another to remain in for so long as was necessary. These desires however were disrupted by the small stone that he had pocketed so haphazardly on Svartalfheim.

First he had used the excuse of only wanting to slip inside the great palace library to research the gem and find out what it was part of, where it had come from. This endeavor turned to days' worth of study and journeys outside the city to delve into the capabilities of the mysterious stone. Each time he would return to the library, and each day he grew a little bolder with his ventures through the palace. He slipped on the faces of those around him with ease, often parading as them whenever he knew there would be no chance of getting caught, and each time he did so Loki grew more aware of a difference in his magic.

The illusions felt firmer, more effective; an odd perception considering none had ever been able to surpass his mastery of the spell, with the possible exception of his mother, the very person who had taught him the ability. He believed the magic long since mastered, but somehow, what he created now felt far superior to any before. He sought to test this newfound ability against the man whose sight surpassed all others: Heimdall. Loki had been able to mask his presence, and the presence of others, for some time from the Gatekeeper, but this ability had never worked so well when face to face with the man. Somehow the watcher's sight was keener when he looked into a person's eyes, and so this would be the ultimate test.

Of course, Loki prepared for the possibility that he would need to kill the Gatekeeper should the illusion fail. It would not do him any good to have somebody aware of his being alive. The murder was unnecessary however when he paraded up to Heimdall as the impetuous warrior Fandral, going so far as the chat the Gatekeeper up about the latest maiden deflowered and some garble about bets won against Volstagg. The guardian had not been impressed, but neither had he been suspect of Loki's illusion. Whatever this gem was, it was a boon indeed.

SIX DAYS AGO

A month of lurking in the shadows of Asgard had come and gone, and Loki's patience was drawing to an end. He'd found nothing to indicate what the shard of stone had originally been part of, nor could he determine the locus of power. The gem did not seem to contain anything, but it looked as if that the stone itself exuded magical energies, which meant it had to have been created, which meant there must have been a record somewhere. It was a puzzle, and one that Loki was determined to solve. After countless experiments he decided it was time at last to see if he could perhaps amplify the energy of the relic rather than just borrow it. It was only a small section of something greater, and he could feel potential hiding within its depths; he only need access it.

Before the sun even rose Loki left the palace under a guise of shadows and illusion, heading toward the Plains of Ida. He went to the coast from there, to the Sea of Marmora. He would test it here, the city far enough away so that none would see anything should his experiment with the stone turn out unfavorable. Watching the water Loki smiled. If he could increase the power of the gem, if he could open it up and release the latent magic, then perhaps he would not have to remain _dead_ for much longer. If he had more power then there would be nothing to worry over anymore. He could take Asgard for himself, banish the All-Father and then protect the realm again those who would seek him out for retribution.

It didn't take long for Loki to mentally delve inside of the gem, his magic reaching into the depths and caressing the energy within, tugging at it with the gentlest of touches and terms. He remained cautious with his every move, mindful of his actions in an effort to keep disaster away, so it was to some surprise when the world around him rocked underfoot. A wave of energy crashed out of the stone and into the space around him with all the finesse of his cavalier brother's wretched hammer.

Magic shimmered in the air for a moment before shooting away from him toward the sea. It stabbed into the sky with a scream of white light, and seconds later Loki watched as a body fell from the sky toward the water, a woman's shriek cutting the air before getting swallowed by the waves. He stood there for a moment, taken aback by the turn of events. _Not quite what I had expected,_ he mused, watching the water to see what would happen to the person who had fallen in. Loki had no intention of setting forth to rescue the stranger, but neither would he hinder her survival; he wasn't a _complete_ monster after all, and he had to admit that in some small way this _might_ have been his fault.

As luck would have it a fishing vessel arrived to the scene shortly after, the flash of light having no doubt drawn their attention. A body was brought aboard seconds later, and moments after that it was clear that they were headed back toward the city. Finding himself curious about the person and the whole event, Loki wasted no time before heading back as well. He wondered if the person had anything to do with the stone or if it were a mere accident encounter. Determined to find out, Loki snuck onto the dock just in time to hear the fisherman state that they would go see Odin. That was an interesting development, considering Odin had announced that none should bother him for anything but the utmost important affairs concerning either the realms or his son.

Loki had to grin at the memory of the declaration. He had managed to mask his brother's whereabouts after Thor left the realm so that not even Heimdall could inform Odin of the prince's wellbeing or whereabouts. It should have been an impossible feat considering the distance, the spell only meant to mask their meeting in the throne room, but in hindsight Loki came to realize it was the stone that had given him the power to create such a spell, an incantation that continued to work even now. That brought him back to the girl and the fisherman as they left the docks together. Who was she and why was she being brought to Odin? He followed after.

When she was taken into the throne room Loki sent an unseen replica of himself in with them, his physical body remaining outside the door while the other listened in on their conversation. He felt a twinge of relief at the woman's account of events. She was nothing but a mortal from Midgard, a mere mistake, although it _was_ interesting that she was friends with his brother. He couldn't help but wonder if there was something greater at work here; coincidences of that magnitude weren't oft occurring. She seemed harmless though, crass, but amusing in her lack of respect for the king.

When Odin summoned for a guard Loki didn't hesitate to slip into Sif's form and stroll inside. This mortal may not have posed any threat, but he would be glad to see her back home and out of his realm once and for all. He would have to do further experimentation elsewhere; it wouldn't do to have Midgardians raining onto Asgard with any frequency. That would certainly lead to some confusion and suspicion he was in no mood to dispel.

TWO DAYS AGO

Since his first attempt to augment the gems power, Loki had made great leaps of discovery in his research. It wasn't until a moment of tedium, when he deemed to break from his studies and read a book from his childhood that he'd come across the allusion needed to push him in the right direction. It had been a frivolous story about the origin of all magic, a mythos his mother had read to him when he was no more than a child.

Touching the leather bound exterior, Loki was struck by a pang of regret so powerful he had to sit down. He could recall lying in bed, his mother sitting at his side, stroking his hair with one hand while she held the book in her lap, reading to him as she bade him to find sleep. He had always been a petulant child, out of place and trapped behind his brother's praise, but where Odin took to trying to tame him through labor and punishment his mother had sought to work _with_ him, rather than against him. _She_ had never left him behind Thor.

"If you insist on foregoing sleep," she told him with a secretive smile, "then we shall at least make these hours more productive." Loki shut his eyes for a minute to fight away the bittersweet memory. When he could no longer see her face, smell her fragrance or feel the touch of her fingers in his hair, he opened his eyes again and began to read.

As if she'd been watching over him the entire while, Loki found his answer a few pages later when he opened to the story of Nemesis. The origin of Nemesis was shrouded in mystery, but many believed the being to be one of the first creatures of magic to ever have existed. Loki had no need to even read any further than that, the story of the soul gems burned into his memory. The answer had been in front of him this entire time, and while he'd been busy looking into every other species known to Asgard, trying to devise their powers and any relics they may have created and lost, the truth had been a simple story from his childhood. Loki pulled out the stone in his pocket and smiled down at it. The small gem warmed the palm of his hand, vibrating with unspent potency. He was holding a fragment of one Infinity Stone. Now all he needed to find was which stone it was, and where he could get the rest.

Hours later Loki was able to read the energy signature for what he believed was the Reality Stone, and knowing now how much the other pieces would be worth, he wasted no more time. He would find the rest of the soul gem and he would be unstoppable. Two of the Infinity Stones were even now accounted for, and while one was already within his reach, Loki had no longing for it, not when his former allies could still feel its presence, and should he dare touch it, his own. The Tesseract had seeped into his mind just as surely as those he had controlled, and while _HE_ was still on the other side of the universe, Loki had no doubt that a link remained. They would know he was alive should he try and manipulate it. He would find his own Infinity Stone, and this one would render him unconquerable.

Loki followed the energy of his stone to Midgard where a similar force, likely a sister to his stone, was making itself known. He followed it into a building and to the top most floor; it was close now. As he drew nearer Loki gave pause to his steps in utter surprise at the sight before him. Standing there, staring at the magic he sought was the same mortal that had fallen through the portal he'd created on Asgard. Darcy Lewis, friend of Thor and—Loki's mouth nearly fell open from his disbelief—a being who also held a portion of shattered Infinity Stone, _his_ Stone, and a portion he realized, that was larger than even his own. It was beyond belief that this human, this _mortal_, did in fact carry more potential strength than he. How absurd an event, but one he could not dare deny the truth of as it stood before his eyes. He closed the distance between them and stepped up to the glass, following her line of sight to the abnormality shielding the soul shard before them.

A moment later he could feel her eyes on his face, studying him. They both knew why they were here so there was little point in trying to mask his agenda. Instead he chose to taunt her, confident that no human could have mastered the use of magic, even _with_ the aid of a soul gem, enough to do him any harm. "You may want to concede this one Miss Lewis, unless of course, you've learned to grow wings."

Without waiting for her to respond Loki made for the shard, and his second surprise of the day came directly after when she grappled him from out of the air, hooking her arms around his body in the same manner Thor had when they were children, wrestling to see who was the stronger. Loki was not a fan of surprises he himself did not orchestrate or of brawling melee in general, and since he had apparently underestimated her ability, he chose to leave with his prize rather than make any more poor judgments. He had what he came for; the human could wait until he determined a proper way to dispose of the competition.

Loki had no intention of crossing paths with Darcy Lewis even now that he had a greater share of the gem than she. How it rankled to even consider that she had _any_ piece of the Reality Stone. She was a _human_! It was unthinkable. They couldn't even _see_ magic, let alone manage it! He would wrest it from her once he had the remaining segments; she would be no match for him at that point. As it stood now however, while he may have been more potent, she was still unpredictable and held yet a great force in her hands. From what he'd gathered of the stone so far it would be no easy task taking it from her, not until he had the full artifact near to completion. Such was the nature of the gem, each one bending reality around it at all times so that it could never be taken once _owned_, although clearly it could be destroyed somehow, a contemplation for later.

It was then, to Loki's great shock and regret, that he had his third encounter with the mortal woman from Midgard who simply would not stay out of his path. It was as if the human endeavored to elicit a reaction from him; what other explanation could there be for her insistence in forcing her company on him? He understood she was likely only being drawn to the same energies as he, but the fact that she continued to arrive _before_ him was something he refused to consolidate as mere intuition on her part. No, this was clearly malicious in nature, and as he got closer to her that idea only took root after seeing the body at her feet. The body wore his face, in a manner of speaking, although it was hardly impressive or stable. She was still grasping to control the energy, but that did nothing to change the fact that she was indeed learning how.

He decided to tread with a little more care than before. "I _am_ flattered." The human turned to him, her eyes wide with shock that mirrored his own. Perhaps she hadn't been expecting him after all. His eyes flickered to the body, curious about why she had summoned it in the first place. "Of all the things in all the realms that you could conjure, you choose to create a mockery of _me._ Why is that, I wonder?"

"You're dead." She gave him as much respect as she'd given Odin and Loki couldn't help but wonder why he had expected differently.

"Clearly not."

"You're _supposed_ to be dead." She'd given him the answer he needed, her quest full of spite after all. The little heathen wanted him dead, no doubt so she could have the gem for herself, never mind how she knew about it.

He refused to give her that pleasure. "I rarely do what's expected of me."

"Thor _watched_ you die." Loki wanted to glare but kept his face schooled. It was still incensing to know that despite the final words Thor had spoken to him, his _brother_ hadn't bothered to mourn his death, or their mother's, in the least. He truly was the brute that Loki had known so well growing up, self-absorbed and tactless.

"_Thor_," he couldn't keep the venom from his voice, "Could watch the moon rise and still insist it noon if he had it stuck in his head. His judgment on _anything_ is scarcely credible. Is that the reason for this poor caricature; an insistence on seeing me dead?" Did she think to manipulate his life with the stone? Once complete, that would indeed be a possibility but for now what she held was only a shadow of the power available.

The woman shrugged her shoulders at him and had the nerve to smirk, "Can't blame a girl for trying, can you?"

"Did you really think summoning a mere image of me would be my end?"

"Maybe." Oh she was vexing.

"You really know nothing." He chuckled, choosing to taunt her again despite the possibility of danger. "How a mortal such as you came to possess pieces of a soul gem is an anomaly in itself."

"Maybe you just don't know us mortals as well as you thought ya did, eh champ?" Loki decided he would, once he had the stone complete, leave her alive at the end and simply remove her tongue.

"I know your species better than I'd like. Guileless chattel is all you are, and all you ever will be." Maybe he would keep her in a cage; she tittered on like a bird so it only seemed a fitting fate.

"I'll have you know I've got plenty of guile, buddy."

Loki saw her move a step closer to the portal, her stance indicating she thought the move stealthy. How droll. He decided to play along with her ruse; he may not have been able to force the sliver of stone from her hands yet, but he could perhaps restrain her until that point. He glanced at the anomaly to their left, then the body and her. How best to go about subduing her was the question. He had no way of knowing how much she could manipulate with the stone's magic yet.

"While I'm loath to admit it, perhaps you do have some semblance of intelligence. Giving Thor and his foolish comrades my body would certainly make my death that much more irrevocable." He'd meant it as a tease to her silly attempt at murder—clearly she'd recognized him from Midgard and sought to finish him once and for all—but now that he'd said it aloud the idea seemed reasonable. A dead body would forever keep suspicion away from him; none would even think to question whether he lived after that.

"What—no way! You can't keep pretending to be dead dude, so not cool, and if you think I'm keeping my mouth shut about this you are abso-freaking-lutely off your gourd. The second I get home this is getting tweeted, tumbled, dug, red and facebooked." Loki didn't understand many of her words, but he did grasp the gist of their meaning, which only further strengthened his resolve to capture her.

"If they have my remains as evidence, your word will be worth little more than senseless ramblings." _Not that you will ever again have the opportunity to make them._

"Oh they'll believe me. They'll know it's fake." The silly girl took another step toward the contorted reality that housed the shard they were both after.

"Will they? You hardly strike me as a class of character they'd consider notable, and the body _won't_ be a mere imitation so poor as yours. I could fashion it as real as I'd like."

"Then I can unfashion it." The child seemed to have an answer for everything.

Her show of bravery and the threat of knowledge gave Loki pause however. Could she offer up a challenge? That could turn out to be quite wearisome, but the mere thought of giving up the untouched piece of stone sitting so near to them now was unbearable, specifically the idea of relinquishing it to a Midgardian _mortal_. He looked her over, trying to gauge what sort of difficulties she might propose. She'd brought herself here after all, and had managed to reach him in midair before that.

"Perhaps you could."

"My, my, is that respect mine ears doth perceive?"

Loki had been willing to conceivably consider surrendering this time until the odds were better in his favor, he'd even ruminated on keeping her alive after defeating her, but for some mortal wench to dare _mock_ _him_, Loki, would-be and rightful king of Asgard, _that_ was unforgivable. A surge of visceral ire flared in him and he moved to her, carried by its fire. He grabbed her wrists and held them to her sides, pulling them down to keep her from lifting either in defiance.

"Do not mistake my grudging concession as respect mortal. You will yield those fragments to me or—"

One of her arms jerked _toward_ him, a direction he hadn't anticipated, and before he could finish his threat or move her limb back in place a jolt of pain coursed through his veins beginning at his side and rushing up to his head and down to his feet. Every muscle on his body seemed to contract and flex as one, the strength of his legs giving way almost immediately. Falling to the ground, his anger and surprise mixing together in the most unpleasant manner, Loki could only wonder at what sort of sorcery she had used against him. The disruption to his musculature only lasted a second longer however, and he was climbing to his feet again with a snarl even as the chit dove up into the anomaly.

Loki wasted no time in chase after. He wanted to kill her now, he truly did, but before that he needed to get hold of the next piece of stone. Mind on the prize he swam after her through the cold water, barely able to see anything after a few strokes forward, then nothing at all a few after that. In an effort to find the mortal Loki cast a spell of light that filled the nearby expanse with an explosive green glow. She was close. Loki surged forward and grabbed for her ankle, determined to pull her away from the target and possibly break a bone in the process, but just as his hand encircled it he felt a rush of water moving forward and his fingers closed around nothing at all. A furious roar was building in his chest at the sudden escape and equivalent defeat, and with a taste for blood he vanished himself out of the impossible lake, back to Asgard so he could regroup and find his composure once again. Oh he would get the rest of the stone, he would get it and he would murder Darcy Lewis with such lingering care that she would beg for an end to her suffering.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Now, please let me know if this is something you'd like me to do again or not. I really didn't have any intentions of sharing this, but I decided to anyway, so if you are NOT a fan of backtracking like this just for the sake of seeing it from another POV let me know and I won't do it again since I know it could detract from the story since there's zero plot progression in here.

BUT, if you did enjoy this let me know and whenever I do this I can share it again.

Anyway, thanks for reading and thank you everyone for the kind reviews, I'm working on the next chapter already so hopefully that will be up within this coming week.


	11. Palaver

When they got to the lab, Darcy and Thor found Jane, Tony—_mother-yeah okay it's getting old_—Stark, Captain America and the older man from the meeting room all standing in a semi-circle and gawking up at a screen that pretty much consisted of a huge map featuring every continent, plus an array of colors that kept popping up and disappearing. Most of the blips centered on Europe, but some flashed in the States along the East coast, up to Canada and all the way down toward Argentina. As Thor began to clear his throat in an effort to get their attention, Darcy did similar in her own way, eyes narrowed to see better as she pointed forward and asked,

"So what's on the tube? We looking for Waldo?" She couldn't really say which of them _got_ the attention of the group, but four sets of eyes faced them a second later and she grinned, wiggling her fingers.

"Darcy you're awake." Jane said with a smile, master of the obvious, but Darcy didn't hold that against her. The woman was still the best boss she'd ever had, which was kind of sad considering she hadn't held a paying job in almost two years. "How're you feeling?"

Darcy gave a half-shrug as her and Thor walked closer, "I'm good. Those were totally nap-worthy sofas, just F.Y.I., not even a crick in the neck which already puts it way above beds in the dorm."

"Good. I'll send the manufacturer a memo with your seal of approval and C.U. gets a scathing report about their apparent need for furniture upgrades." Tony commented, and Darcy just couldn't tell if he was serious or not. Knowing what she knew about him though, he probably would do something like that. _Darcy Lewis Approved people; it's the stamp to look for on all your household comfort needs. If Darcy didn't do it; don't._ She liked the sound of her own fake commercial and decided to make a jingle for it later.

"Please, I have troubling news my friends." Thor interjected, taking up the mantle of Debbie Downer like a champ.

"Well that's always nice to hear." Older dude said in a tone that couldn't have been more cynical. "I for one, _love_ troubling news first thing in the morning."

"Easy Banner, save the joy for Christmas." Tony said with a smirk, the two of them exchanging that _Bro_ look that Darcy recognized from half the dudes on campus. They were sharing a _moment_, and _holy shit balls did he just call that guy Banner? Like _the,

"_Bruce_ Banner?" Darcy blurted the question and couldn't stop herself before finishing, "_The_ Bruce Banner, like, green, angry, smash and destroy Culver's science department that I totally didn't hack to find out _Bruce Banner_?"

A heavy silence fell in the lab and Darcy could have sworn a vein started to pulse in Dr. Banner's—_holy shit it's the Hulk!—_forehead. He humored her though, his eye switching with obvious annoyance and his mouth tightening before he answered, "Yeah. Wait, how do you know about that?"

"Dude, _you_ are legendary." Darcy continued, shaking her head in disbelief and ignoring the rise of tension, "You know the janitors _still_ talk about the mess you left behind; I mean, they don't know it was _you, _you, but they still talk about the explosion. Crazy stuff, and _they_ have to deal with all the poor rush victims puking all over the place. And I've totally seen that video Jimmy took in the quad; you could totally go down in the college hall of fame for—"

"Darcy." Thor said her name as soft as his voice could, but it was enough to shut her up. He was right, they had more important things to talk about and here she was babbling about a college legend that probably didn't even want to hear it if his body language and facial expressions were any indication. Yep, she was a real charmer.

"Sorry. Shutting up now." Darcy made the key-locking-a-door motion over her lips and stuck with it, keeping her mouth shut—_for now_.

"Thor, what's—" Jane started to ask the question that was probably on everyone's mind, but the Norse god just gave her a sad smile before he answered.

"Stark, it is as you believed."

"Of course it is!" Tony blurted with the same level of delicacy Darcy always managed. "Wait which part? Not the part about Cap here whoring himself out in secret for all that good publicity he always gets right? I can't even _buy_ that kind of publicity and I'm loaded."

Captain America—Darcy was sure he had a real name outside of that but she just couldn't remember what it was; something with an S—threw a look at Tony that suggested the promise of a stern talking to later, and Thor just shook his head, apparently not getting the joke because he continued on as if hadn't been a hilarious question that Darcy was trying not to laugh at. "No: your counsel that the Lady Darcy might hold an object of interest secret to us."

"Ha! I knew it." Stark boasted, holding his hand out toward the Captain. Everyone watched as Mister Apple Pie shook his head and fished out his wallet.

"That still doesn't mean they're keeping information from us, at least not without good reason." He countered, pulling out a tenner.

"Did you _really_ think those meatheads learned their lesson the last time? I mean come on; you saw the file and the footage, and that—"

"There is more news." Thor interrupted, and everyone looked to him before he finished. He paused, for dramatic effect of course, before ending with the coup de grâce of: "My brother lives."

"No." Jane uttered, her head shaking, "No we _watched_ him die. I was there."

"Wait you mean Loki's _not_ dead now? How does that happen and what life insurance does _he_ have?"

"I know not how he survived." Thor confessed, "But Darcy has seen him." And queue all eye in the room turning to her.

Darcy flushed from the attention. Wishing, but not _wishing_, that the invisible lock and key on her lips was actually real so she wouldn't have to explain everything to the group of hard-eyed superheroes—plus one—staring at her now. Boy did they know how to make a girl sweat, and not in the good way. Grinning from the surge of anxiety, Darcy gave them a shrug and a grin, nudging her head toward Thor.

"No; yeah, I mean it's pretty much just what he said."

"Uh uh princess," Tony denied her attempt at getting out of it, "We're having us some story time right here, right now, so you better get comfy. JARVIS send for popcorn. And you—" He pointed a finger at her, "—you need me to bring in one of those couches sweetheart? 'Cause I get the feeling we're going to be here a while."

An hour later, Darcy dangled her legs off the edge of a table and stared down at her hands for a moment, picking some dead skin off of her finger. "So yeah, then I poofed back here into your little meeting thing and that was that. Death averted. Go team Darcy."

"So Loki survived." Steve—as she had learned through Tony's teasing during the course of her story— reiterated, his eyebrows furrowing together in worry.

"Like the great Gloria." Darcy confirmed, pursing her lips while she nodded.

"And you both have _pieces_ of a, what was it, an _Infinity Stone_?" Jane clarified, glancing at Thor to verify the term. He nodded, as did Darcy.

"Yeah, I guess that makes three pieces for yours truly now, but I don't know how much of the whole thing that translates to, and I _don't_ know how many Loki has either."

"And you've filed yours away somewhere in Darcy organ land?" Tony asked.

"Apparently." She kicked her legs out and swung them back as she looked around. They were all still staring at her, only this time she could see an inch of suspicion there, hiding in their eyes. Whether it was due to her encounter with Loki or her ability to do whatever was in her heart's desire she couldn't tell. "I don't know." She added a second later. "I mean I just wanted them out of sight you know and BAM…pain in my chest so I don't know what happened or where they are exactly."

"Scan her JARVIS." Tony commanded, his eyes glancing over her breasts in a way that probably wasn't entirely professional.

"And what shall I scan her with sir?" The dry voice asked from above. "There is no medical equipment in this laboratory, or on this floor." He—it—the voice concluded.

"Right. To the med-lab then. Floor fifteen." He corrected.

"Floor sixteen, sir."

"Floor sixteen."

"Wait, no, no, no." Darcy said, shaking her head, "You are so not scanning or poking or prodding or probing anything, you got that? You can just take my word for it. They're here," she knocked on her sternum, "and that's all there is to it."

Tony Stark, that arrogant, sexy ass, just smirked at her. "Nobody but you said anything about probing. Slip of the tongue there or wishful thinking?" She was so going to stop fan-girling for him after this.

"Is it _dangerous_ for her to have them _inside_ of her like that?" Jane interrupted the banter, looking at Thor.

"Would that I know." He answered, looking a little ashamed at his lack of information. "There's scant knowledge as it is about many of these relics. One rests in the vaults of Asgard, and I've been told the other has been sent far to another location for safekeeping."

"Why not keep them both in Asgard, wouldn't that be safer?" Jane asked.

"No. The stones are most dangerous when brought together. It's rumored that if all Infinity Stones are collected, one could be granted the power of the All-God himself."

"But nobody _knows_ that for sure?" Bruce asked this time.

Thor gave an uncomfortable shrug, his lack of expertise in this subject clearly getting to him. He looked seriously out of his element. "I'm afraid the stones predate even my people. What evidence we have is based on myth and legend, and only very rarely on fact. I could perhaps gather more information if I returned to Asgard, but—"

"I think you leaving the planet right now would be a bad idea there thunder."

"Stark's right," Steve agreed with a nod, waving his hand toward the map, "if those men have the same thing Miss Lewis and your brother have, then we'll need all the help we can—"

"What men?" Darcy interrupted, a flare of—holy shit _really?_—jealousy lighting in her chest.

After throwing her a glance, Tony grabbed onto of his weird quasi-phone-remote-device thing and slid a finger across the surface a few times. As he did, two different windows popped up on the screens in front of her. One looked like a wall of text, the other a paused video of some obese man standing in an alley. With one more finger swipe the wall of text grew larger, dominating the monitors.

"JARVIS pulled this off the SHIELD servers a little while before you crashed our party earlier."

"Should we really be sharing this information with a _civilian_?"

"Give me a break Cap, she's got the next possible world's greatest threat snuggled up behind her cleavage and you're worried about sharing secrets from an organization that won't even divvy it out to saviors of this damn place?"

"Point taken."

Tony waved at the screen and a picture came to the forefront. Smiling at the camera was a man. He looked handsome enough, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, blonde with brown eyes. The man looked amused, staring at whoever took the photo like he'd ask them to delete it a second later. Apparently he didn't get his way. He looked nice though, like the kind of guy you'd feel safe talking to at a bar because he wasn't physically threatening and didn't have one of those weird faces that turned every innocent flirt or comment into something creepy. Just to the left of the picture Darcy could see the words 'protective custody' and 'external consultant' standing out in red.

"Who's that?" She asked.

"That's what I'd call a little friendly competition. His name is Kristian Crotch, and—"

"I believe it's pronounced _Koch_, sir."

"Whatever. He's German, and according to this he might have a piece of the same rock you do princess."

Thor gave a solemn nod, "Given what information Loki has provided and the powers that Lady Darcy now possesses, I would wager anything that he does."

"And let's not forget Big Mac over here," Tony continued, bringing up the other window just before hitting play. "Lights!" The overhead fixtures in the lab dimmed as the video began to roll. Yeah, Darcy could totally get used to chilling in this place. She focused on the screen and grabbed out a handful of popcorn from the bowl beside her.

The video began with the heavy set man in an alleyway. He was shaking like he was in the middle of having a seizure, his dark, stringy hair plastered against his forehead with sweat. There was a momentary sun flare, and when the camera focused again the guy was on the ground this time, leaning on his forearms and knees. Darcy wondered why somebody would film this but not call for help until she saw the body lying motionless a foot away from the man. It looked like the body's head had exploded, no freaking joke, with nothing but a bloody stump left behind and a spray of matching red extending out across the ground and walls. Now she didn't blame the dude behind the phone video for not getting any closer. Fuck all that. Somebody whispered in a language she couldn't understand, and before she could ask Tony provided the answer.

"Hungarian. Something to the tune of 'oh shit, oh shit.'"

On the ground still, the guy started to prop himself up onto his hands, both arms shaking like a pair of crack heads fiending for the next hit. He let out a blood-curdling scream, and Darcy had to blink a few times to believe what she was seeing next—and yes, she completely understood how hilarious it was to still get hit by a little of the old disbelief after what she had been through lately. Right on camera the man's weight started to suck into his body. It was like the greatest commercial ever for weight loss featuring CGI that hadn't been invented yet as clumps of fat that had been pressing grotesquely against his shirt melted _inward_. While most of his body disappeared into the baggy clothes hanging from his form, Darcy was amazed to see the muscles in his neck start to bulge, his forearms erupting with rock solid tendons that were flexing like they were in the Strong Man competition.

His hair seemed to both slough off of his head and regrow, thicker and cleaner than before as the thinned, greasy strands slapped onto the pavement. His face got thinner, his jawline growing more defined by the second until the changes seemed to stop and he climbed to his feet. Even without him facing the camera, Darcy could tell the man had gone through supernatural makeover of the year. He seemed taller now and his frame was absolutely thick with muscle. A shoulder was clearly defined as the shirt hung from him, and she could see just enough skin to know he'd trimmed everything excess away. As if he'd read her mind and wanted to see for himself, the stranger reached down and ripped his shirt off Hulk Hogan style, revealing a body to rival Thor's.

"Holy crap." Darcy breathed.

"And look away." Tony said with a bored sigh, and everyone in the room did so except for Darcy.

She hadn't seen the video yet and she was sure as shit not going to miss the last few seconds. Her lack of reaction probably fell under that umbrella of stupid crap she always found herself doing because, what the hell Darcy, you only live once right? So she watched the screen as beefcake in the alley's head turned their direction, his eyes landing on the poor camera man. Beefcake roared something unintelligible, and less than a second later the man holding the phone screamed and the video plummeted to the floor. Then it went black. Darcy frowned.

"Why did I have to—?"

"Guess that rock of yours does even more than you know." Everyone was looking at her now. This whole center of attention thing was starting to get annoying.

"That's amazing." Jane breathed.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Darcy was getting impatient.

"You sweetheart." Tony said, nudging his head toward the monitor. "We've watched that video half a dozen times and it doesn't matter what we do or try, that last part makes everyone pull a temporary Stevie Wonder if you keep your eyes on it."

"Well nothing happened to _me_." She countered, forgetting for a minute that she _might_ have had something the rest of them didn't.

"_Really_?" Tony asked, deadpanned.

"Oh the _rock_."

"Winner, winner." He replied with a smirk.

"Chicken dinner." She grinned.

"So we think they're all carrying the same thing then?" Steve, probably the most sensible person in the room, asked in an effort to more than likely squash their joking.

"She's the only one that wasn't blinded." Bruce answered with a small shake of his head, his eyes examining her like she was a future patient.

"And the boys down at SHIELD don't want to invite us to play in this game for some reason."

"They probably just don't understand what they're dealing with." Steve, bless his heart, tried to defend the organization.

An argument between all the men erupted after that as they all tried discussing the situation at once, but Darcy really wasn't interested in all that anymore. She had competition; as if Loki wasn't bad enough. She slid off of the desk and walked to one of the lab windows, the city of New York sprawling out in front of her. There was way too much construction going on, way too many closed businesses. Loki really had done a number on this place.

Jane joined her a second later, and without prompt hugged her from the side, which was kind of weird because she and Jane never had much beyond the whole boss/employee relationship thing with the exception of Darcy constantly getting on the scientist's nerves. "I'm glad you're okay." The woman said.

"Um, thanks?" Darcy answered with a shrug.

Jane pulled away and frowned. "I'm so sorry for sending you to check out those anomalies. I was irresponsible. This never should have happened." Ah; it was guilt then. Darcy grinned and shook her head.

"No worries Jane, I'm not dead so we're cool. Plus, I'm like totally rocking the super powers now so I guess I should thank you or something huh?" Before the conversation could get anymore feeling-saturated, Darcy waved her hand back to the guys still talking heatedly about strategy at their back. "So what's all this about anyway."

"That's what the meeting was for that you _dropped_ in on. Tony acquired—"

"Don't you mean stole?"

Jane rolled her eyes, "Okay, he _stole_ the file and that video from some SHIELD computer and wanted to ask Director Fury about it. They denied everything though and more or less tried to threaten him about not doing that kind of thing again. Even after you fell out of nowhere they wouldn't say anything. What I don't understand is _why_ though; you'd think they would _want_ the Avengers help on this thing."

"Because they want it for themselves." Darcy answered bluntly. She didn't know if that was true or not, but it would be a damn good reason because hell, _she_ wanted it for herself and she wasn't some shady government organization.

"Do you really think so?"

"I think what I'm carrying right now is worth a hell of a lot more than anybody's giving it credit for, and I think if they can, they'll try to get the rest of it." She turned to Jane and flashed her most charming grin. "But I'm going to find it first."

"No way Darcy, that's too dangerous!" Jane warned, as if she had any room to talk about running into dangerous situations. "We should contain the pieces that you have so you can get as far away from this stuff as possible. Erik even said that—"

"I'm not giving them to _anybody_." Darcy interrupted with a tone more clipped than she'd intended. She couldn't help it though; Jane's suggestion felt more like a threat. "If Loki couldn't get them from me and couldn't kill me, I'm sure as hell not afraid of some normal from-earth European dudes."

"You should be." A male voice to her right said, and both she and Jane jumped from the unexpected proximity of a new person.

Darcy turned with a glare to find the blue eyed man who'd been sitting next to Prison Barbie watching the two of them with a disarming smirk as he leaned against the glass, his arms crossed, and for a second she just couldn't fathom how so many people could manage to look this good fighting crime. Didn't anybody ever get punched in the face? It was unreal, and she totally needed to get in on some of these secrets. The only issue the man had was a set of dark rings under his eyes, but she could handle a few sleepless nights if it meant a great body and a supermodel face.

"Agent Barton." Jane breathed. "I didn't hear you come in."

"That's why I get paid the big bucks." He answered with an amused twinkle in his eye. "So iPod girl found a new toy eh?"

Darcy opened her mouth to lash back when Thor's voice boomed from across the room, "Clint Barton!"

"JARVIS, how'd he get in here?" Tony asked, their voices drawing closer.

"I'm not entirely certain, sir." The computer admitted.

"Ventilation shafts." Clint confessed with a proud grin.

"Remind me to install cameras in there—so did Fury change his mind? He finally admitting that he needs Earth's ultimate heroes again?"

"Aw is somebody feeling like a spurred lover, Stark?"

"Just a one night stand at this point."

"What _are_ you doing here, Agent Barton?" Steve asked, bringing serious back to the table.

"I'm here to tell you what Fury couldn't, that SHIELD is in over their heads and that the Avengers might need to step up, although in an unofficial capacity for now."

"Why do they keep this from us?" Thor asked with a frown.

"Because the Director's been compromised." He offered with a half-shrug, his face falling a little before he added in, "Romanoff too."

Heavy glances were exchanged by all before Steve asked with a frown, "How did that happen."

Clint pointed to the monitor behind them. "The German. He made some sort of agreement with them, that's all I know. They won't—or can't—say anything about the operation, but something big is happening. We had over a dozen agents go missing in Hungary yesterday, and I'd bet my bow it has something to do with that guy." His hand wavered to the right, toward the darkened video.

"Does anybody know who he is yet?"

Steve continued the questions, and Darcy had to admire how well he stepped into the role of leader without anybody even assigning it. Or maybe it was assigned? She realized now that short of what the tabloids, the TV and Jane told her, she really didn't know anything else about the Avengers. Did they all work part time jobs when they weren't off saving the world, get a government stipend or did Tony Stark keep them all like the girls living at the Playmate mansion? Did they live in this building or have their own apartments in the city? She pictured Bruce going all hulk in the shower after running out of hot water and grinned; probably not normal apartments.

"Andros Fodor." Clint answered. "He lives in Monor with his parents. Thirty-three, unemployed, middle child and now apparently a villain."

"It's always the middle children." Tony quipped with a shake of the head.

"There is actually _some_ statistical evidence predicating birth order to be indicative of—"

"So SHIELD doesn't know you're here right now?" Steve interrupted Bruce and steered the conversation back on track. Even if nobody else did, Captain America definitely had his head in the game already; what a trooper.

"Of course not, Tasha'd have me on the floor and hogtied if they knew."

"This is no time to share your fantasies."

Clint continued, ignoring Tony's commentary, "Whatever's happening they're playing it real close to the vest on this one, and whatever deal her and Fury made must be solid if they aren't even telling me."

"So you don't know anything that we don't already is what you're saying?"

"I'm saying _Apple_ here is right. I think Fury has this German working with Natasha right now to get more of these stones. They've both been more secretive than usual ever since that video hit the web, but after Darcy splashed down they've been so tightlipped they'd probably qualify for a Convent at this point."

"They couldn't even handle the last one."

"We must not let them gather the rest of the Infinity Stone." Thor agreed.

Knowing that another deep discussion was about to take place, likely in an effort to get her to give up the shards and make herself scarce while they all went off doing super-hero stuff, Darcy clenched her fists at her sides, steeled her nerves, then stated with as much authority as she could, "I'll look for the other shards." When everyone's attention turned to her, a few mouths even starting to open in protest, she continued in a rush, "And this isn't negotiable folks. There are three crazies out there all looking for the same thing, and since I'm less crazy than they are—"

"That's debatable." Jane muttered.

"—I'm the best option to try and head them off. Plus, none of you even know where to look and I seem to have a knack for it already." Darcy finished, throwing a small glare at her boss.

"The danger of such a quest would be great." Thor said softly, watching her with a new look on his face, probably a mixture of worry, _maybe_ respect, and definitely an appreciation for her balls of freaking steel and smidge of stupidity.

"Miss Lewis," Steve started, and Darcy immediately shook her head and lifted a hand to give him the universal sign of 'hold your freaking horses.'

"Just Darcy dude, seriously, _Miss_ makes me feel like I'm back in school."

"Darcy," he corrected, "If you'd be willing to help us in stopping the others from collecting the rest of this stone, we'll make sure to keep you safe while you do. You have my word on that."

She couldn't stop the grin from forming on her face at his promise. It was sweet really, and pretty darn endearing that Steve assumed she was offering her help on their account. She would have gone after the other shards with or without their blessing, something about the idea of having more so appealing that Darcy couldn't resist. Probably a good thing she never tried drugs if she got addicted to things this easily. Still, it was nice to look like a good guy in all this—not that she was bad dammit, just, well it was hard to explain why she wanted the shards so badly; she just _did_—and if she could help them out while helping herself then it was a win-win situation for all. Right?

"My brother will also seek these remaining pieces." Thor caught her eyes, "You do know this."

"Yeah I know."

"That's why Darcy won't be going out into the field alone." Steve said with an air of finality. "So here's what we need to do first…"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Ugh, okay this chapter was a pain in the ass to write, and I really hope that I didn't break character for anyone. Feel free to let me know if I did however so I can fix it. Also, I really hope you enjoyed reading it more than I enjoyed writing it. I don't really like chapters this heavy in conversation, but I felt it was necessary for the story so yeah...couldn't be helped. Anyway, thanks again for reading, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed. You make it much more fun to write :)


	12. Jotunheim

"Again."

Darcy groaned as Steve's smooth voice echoed through the large room she found herself training in with the Captain himself, Ironman, and Hawkeye. Every girl's wet dream right? Well maybe it _would_ have been had she not been working up a sweat trying to master her new mojo with them, not to mention keep from killing them by mistake in the process. Not as hot as it sounded. The Captain's plan was for her to teleport everyone along with to wherever the next shard appeared. Easy-peasy right? Only she'd never moved anyone but herself before and the effort, she was finding out, was downright exhausting, and moreover her aim wasn't all that great yet either.

However the Infinity Stones worked, this one seemed to draw some amount of power from the user and it required a good deal of concentration, two things Darcy wasn't super psyched about—or even good at—giving up, certainly not when the exertions lasted more than a few minutes at a time. They'd been going at this now for over two _freaking_ hours. Darcy was feeling dead on her feet, and she supposed this was where that saying 'taking one for the team' came into play, but damn if she didn't want to just go relax in a tub full of hot water and lavender scented bubbles with a stiff drink and a good book. Maybe whiskey and War of the Worlds.

"Really?" She whined before letting out a heavy sigh.

Darcy glanced at the door. It was so close; hell, she didn't even need to use it to get out of here if we were being honest. But these were the good guys she reminded herself, possible friends if she didn't get killed through this whole escapade, and okay, so maybe it was a _little_ cool working with _actual_ super heroes instead of just random geek-heads, but ever since Thor had fallen from the sky some two years ago she'd found herself out of her depth and dog-tired more times than she could count now. This was just another thing getting added to her list of what-the-hell-am-I-doing-with-my-life questions. Maybe she'd just forget about her degree and go for a file clerk job after this somewhere in the Midwest. Nothing ever happened out there.

"We need to be prepared." He explained, and she saw his eyes dart over to Clint who was sporting a brand new limp that was entirely her fault although nobody could _really_ blame her. Could they? Darcy's first few attempts at moving them somewhere else in the room hadn't been exactly successful, but dammit she'd warned them. Also, for the record, hitting walls really hurt. At least she knew that she could teleport to safety before feeling the impact of a fifteen foot drop; but poor Clint; well, let's just say he didn't fare as well. At least the man knew how to take a fall without breaking anything. She'd have to give him a sorry-for-almost-hobbling-you card later. Did Hallmark even make those? Maybe she'd find one online.

Darcy gave a resigned nod. Okay so practice was definitely still necessary. Steve was right; she knew he was right, but that didn't make this any more fun. Sure, at first she thought it would be a blast 'porting everyone around with her which was why she'd agreed so damn fast, but more often than not talk is so much easier and more amusing than action. She just wanted to climb into bed and get away from everything, but she knew that probably wasn't going to happen for a while, so she did like mom always said when she'd sobbed about not getting her way as a kid: suck it up sweetie. Her mom always did have first-class advice.

"And maybe a little less airborne." Clint added with a smirk, taking his injury pretty darn well.

"I could always just build you a little set of wings." Tony said with a sly grin. "Maybe something with white feathers and—"

"If you make a Cupid joke in the next few seconds I'm shooting you in the ass." Clint cut him short.

For another half-hour Darcy teleported around the training room with the three heroes in tow, even managing to catch them all before anybody could fall on at least _one_ of those tries—and read: catch _Hawkeye_ since the other two seemed more than capable of getting to the ground without a hiccup, although Clint was getting better at improvising now that he knew what to expect. Every now and then however, despite the exertions and the pleasant distraction of Tony and Clint's banter, Darcy found her eyes straying over to Thor who was staring from the sidelines. The big guy's face was somber, and she could feel empathy tugging at her heartstrings something fierce. He needed a hug. Not even Jane had managed to cheer him up, and there was something inherently wrong about seeing Thor all sad and depressed; he wore smiles so much better than frowns.

Before they'd even headed to the training room Thor had insisted on telling his father about his brother's survival and the Infinity Stone straight away. He was sure Odin would be happy about the Loki news and know how to handle the situation, but after ten minutes of calling for Heimdall to retrieve him and getting no answer, nobody wanted to state the obvious, that maybe Odin already knew and he wasn't all that happy. After that Darcy found herself listening in on Thor's conversation with Jane when the demi-god had pulled his girlfriend to the side. He'd expressed a deeper fear to the woman, that maybe his dad had taken his refusal for the throne harder than he'd let on initially. He feared a second banishment. Well that was new and interesting. Darcy was really starting to wonder how far up she actually ranked on the friendship meter since nobody bothered to share a damn thing with her about anything these days—or any days really, come to think of it. Seeing his sudden depression put a damper on her feelings though, so she set them aside and locked them away for later.

Since then, he'd simply sat on the bench and watched the rest of them practice, his face strict and eyes distant with contemplation. He wasn't the only one Darcy noticed. After accepting her help the rest of the Avengers squad—minus Thor—had held a small pow-wow out of her hearing range. How convenient, right? She seriously wasn't as stupid as they assumed she was though. Did they really think she missed the way they were watching her every move? They may have been working as a team, but she got the distinct feeling that she was still the odd man out, and that there had been some sort of prior agreement on what to do with her if she screwed up and gave off evil vibes. _That_ little bit of insight came to her when she'd accidentally dropped Clint the first time. It had only lasted a second, but she hadn't missed the way Steve's shoulders had tensed or the way Tony's hand had dropped just as soon as she'd looked his way. She certainly knew where she ranked in the scheme of things. She was a glorified taxi service on probation. Wouldn't dad be proud?

But Darcy pushed all of that down. She'd worry about it later. Right now she had to concentrate on moving everyone and not passing out from the strain. She _did_ need a few minutes to collect herself regardless, and she was getting ready to ask for a break, even if it was only for ten minutes, but her question died before it had even been set free when a shiver ran up her spine. Something was vying for her attention, and it was the sensation she'd begun to associate with the stone in her possession. Another shard had appeared. She didn't know where, but she knew it was damn far from where she stood now, but that had hardly stopped her before.

"What are you waiting for princess?" Tony asked from her left. "We doing this or—"

"Hold the phone. There's another one." Darcy cut him off as she tilted her head to the side, ear up like that might help her find it somehow. Everyone knew what she meant and an air of business filled the room.

"Banner, any read outs up there?" Tony called to the ceiling a millisecond later.

"No, nothing. We've got a dozen different algorithms running but I don't see anything on the map."

"Try adjusting the—" Jane's voice said, the sound of a few keystrokes filling the speakers for a moment before she finished with, "Wait does she know where it's at?"

"No but it's definitely not local," Darcy answered, "and we've got to go, like _yesterday._" Her perception of the fragment was getting stronger by the second, which meant whoever else could feel it was probably sensing the same thing. Her heart was starting to beat faster at the idea of racing to get there, and every muscle itched to move closer. She could leave without them, but the memory of their distrustful stares kept her in place. _Don't screw this up Darce._

"Not local, like, not _New York_ local?" Clint asked with a frown.

"No like probably not _earth_ local." Darcy could hear her impatience leaking into her words, "You guys ready or what? C'mon!"

"Hold on a second here." Steve said with a frown, "We can't just go jumping to someplace unknown without a plan. We didn't think another one would come up this fast, we don't even..." But Darcy stopped paying attention, all of her focus keying in on the distant shard.

It was calling to her. She felt like Frodo and the damn One Ring. She could feel it like a cold breeze against her skin, not forceful but definitely impossible to ignore. It was pulling her in one direction, destination unknown, and while Steve was right, they couldn't know what to expect on the other side, Darcy wasn't inclined to care at that moment. She knew what she wanted and plans be damned, she wanted go after it. Would they still want to work with her though if she left them in the dust now?

"Dude there's not any _time_." She interrupted the conversation that had started and crossed her arms, giving them her toughest you-damn-well-better-listen-to-me stare. "If me, myself and I know it's there then so do those Euro-dudes not to mention Loki, and _they_ won't be waiting for a freaking plan from Captain America before going after it!"

Steve's frown deepened. "Doctor Banner, do you have anything yet?"

"No. Either the computer can't pick this one up or Miss Lewis is right: it isn't on this planet, and if that's the case then I'm afraid this software isn't going to be much help unless somebody has a long range satellite I'm not aware of."

"See. _Now_ can we go?" She was getting antsier by the second.

"I should get my zero-g prototype." Tony started, "Just in case."

"You haven't completed the micro-nuclear supply pack yet sir. The S.A. Mark One is not ready for flight at this time."

"Wait, you think we might end up in _space_?" Clint asked. His voice was calm enough, but a hint of his discomfort still shined out from his eyes, the look only accentuated by the dark rings below.

"I don't think so—I don't know—I mean maybe?" Darcy wasn't sure if it was possible or not. All the other shards had been on planets, but what did she know anyway? All she knew was that she wanted to go _now, now, now_, and if these asshats weren't willing to risk suffocating in space then she'd just go without them, because asphyxiating didn't sound nearly as bad as giving up a piece of the stone to somebody else.

"Then maybe—" Steve started to say something, probably another idea or plan or method for dealing with the madness but Darcy didn't give a shit because the feeling she'd been leaning into, the magnetic, pulsing pull of the shard, vanished abruptly. She staggered forward a step in dumb surprise.

"No!" She yelled, her fists balling up at her sides. "No, no, _no!_" The guys were staring at her but she didn't care. They'd lost her the gem dammit! A rush of anger burned from her stomach to her throat and she glared at them before pointing her finger to the wall, somewhere in the general direction she'd felt the pull come from before it had disappeared from her radar. "Goddammit! You morons and all your damn hesitating just lost us that fucking rock! It's gone now! Are you happy? _Huh?_" Her last question came out as a high-pitch outburst, and a very uncomfortable silence filled the room as they all watched her. One second stretched to five.

"Darcy?" Jane's concerned voice called from the loudspeaker then, breaking the stalemate.

Slapped with a sudden wave of shame at her explosion, Darcy could feel several sets of hard eyes staring at her like she was ready to go all Loki on their asses. Her cheeks grew hot. Although her heart was still pounding with adrenaline, she tried to force herself to calm down. Okay so maybe her little fit hadn't been the greatest idea with everyone already on edge around her, but Darcy was well beyond her usual demeanor. She was tired and stressed, and the sudden rages were just as confusing as they were overpowering. What the hell was wrong with her and why couldn't she get a handle on it? She'd never had these kinds of mood swings before, and the fact that they were so swift and overwhelming was disarming. Darcy slipped on a mask of remorse.

"Sorry." She rushed before anybody else could say anything. "I'm sorry I just—it sucks you know? I felt it, it was there, I could have had it and then _whoosh_, just _freaking_ gone."

"Do I need to get you a Xanax princess? 'Cause I can get a doc in here ASAP if you're feeling a little crazy town. Banner, you can write that up, can't you?"

"I _told_ you I'm not that kind of Doctor." The overhead speaker answered.

"No, I'm fine, seriously, it's just I can't—"

"Darcy," She turned to find Thor standing now, just a foot or so away. "Please, you _must_ learn discipline over this Stone before it controls _you_."

She glanced at the others before inching closer to the demi-god. Advice she could use, but she definitely didn't need everyone else hearing her question or chiming in on how she wasn't the right person for the job. "I know that. I know—I just—it keeps making me so _angry_ every time I can't get my hands on another one, but I've never gotten this pissed over anything before. I don't get it."

He gave a sagely nod, his eyes focused on her, "I know little regarding the Stones, but having witnessed two in use that does not seem surprising."

"They're gonna keep popping up without warning." She said this part louder, turning now so that she was talking to everyone, "When the next one comes I can't wait around for you guys to get it together. We'll have to leave _that_ second or it could get swiped up by Loki or that muscle-head from the phone footage."

"You needn't worry for the next one that arises. I will accompany you no matter the destination." Thor assured her. "I can survive many more environments than a Midgardian with ease."

"Don't think you get to ride in this rodeo alone cowboy. The suit's almost done, just need to calibrate the pack and solder it on. This could be a great beta test."

"I doubt very much that Miss Potts would agree, sir."

"Pep can yell at me after this is all over, unless I die, in which case I'll get away with it scot free."

"I won't let you guys die, jeeze, have a little faith would you?"

"If you three want to take lead on finding the rest of this stone, then Barton and I will go after the Hungarian. SHIELD is already working with Mister Koch so we'll worry about him when and if we have to worry about him." Steve declared.

"That's insane!" Darcy blurted. "You guys don't even know what he's capable of, I mean, you _saw_ the video!"

"While that may be true, we can't just sit back and do nothing when he's out there killing people. We know how to handle ourselves."

"Oh yeah?" She challenged.

Later on, she'd look back on these next few seconds as one of the stupidest things she'd ever done before, but in the heat of the moment, all she could think about was that these heroes could get hurt, so Darcy made it her aim to give them just a little taste of the unexpected. Loki had told her she'd _summoned_ that dead body, and she had pulled her jacket and that food out of thin air, so it didn't take much faith on her part to believe she could put Captain America in a dress. That's right people, all-American Steve Rogers was putting on a dress today. Darcy smirked. Tony and Clint burst out into roaring laughter while Thor kept his own bottled, only the corner of his mouth curling up.

"I feel like I should ask you to dance now Cap." Clint joked.

It didn't take long for poor Steve to realize what had happened, and when he looked down he found himself standing in a pink leotard, complete with frilly, matching tutu and ballet slippers. He filled it out nicely though, Darcy had to admit, his muscles pressed taut against the fabric leaving little to the imagination. She let him blush for a second while she took in the view, then with barely a brush of willpower she took the dress away and left him wearing his old clothes again.

"I'm pretty sure I saw him in Black Swan." Tony quipped.

"But do you see?" She finished her point and stifled a yawn, waving her hand at his body, "You can't prepare for crap like this. It's impossible, and he's sure as hell not just gonna be playing dress up with you guys."

He had a fist clenched at his side and his jaw was tight, but other than that the Captain took his momentary humiliation with good grace, even forcing a smirk of his own despite the chuckles that Tony and Clint were still trying to manage at his expense. "I understand your point but that right there is all the more reason for us to do something. We'll make arrangements with—"his words stopped short when Clint's cackles cut off abruptly and he turned away from everyone, answering into his earpiece,

"Understood." It was amazing he still had that thing on. It never seemed to leave his head regardless of how many walls he hit or falling rolls he had to do, which was pretty damn impressive since Darcy couldn't even keep herself from dropping phones she was actively holding onto. "I can be there in three hours." Before anyone could start asking questions he faced them again, all of his earlier humor completely evaporated. "We have four unknown persons reported in Puerto Antiguo. They fell from the sky." Everyone looked at Thor.

He seemed to consider the news for a moment before he answered. "It _could_ be the Bifrost. Perhaps the All-father has at last answered my call."

"Why would he send people there again though? That place is the pits. Why not just pick you up?" Darcy asked what she was sure Thor himself was probably already thinking.

"I don't know." The demi-god admitted.

"Well I know how to find out." Clint said. "I'm taking a jet and heading out there. Good luck with that stone stuff; you have my number if you need me."

"It'll be faster if I give you a lift." Tony offered, apparently forgetting the fact that he'd already made plans. He must have been hankering for some kind of immediate action and bad.

"You're still only a consultant Stark. This is SHIELD business; level 7 security clearance and you only rank a 5."

"I'll go with you." Steve said. "They upgraded me after the Battle of New York, and until we get a reading from Doctor Banner there's not much else I can do around here."

"Sounds good. Let's go."

"I could just teleport you guys there you know."

Clint smirked, "Not that I don't trust your aim honey, but I don't trust your aim. I'll stick to a thousand pounds of combustible fuel to carry me thank you very much."

Darcy pursed her lips and was about to make a scathing remark when another cold shiver shot up her spine. She stood ramrod straight for a second and laughed, a bubble of pure pleasure rising up in the pits of her stomach at the unexpected chance to get another shard. The last one really had done a number on her apparently. This was too damn good to be true, but there it was anyway. With everyone staring she only laughed again and pointed to the sky.

"There's another one. We've got to go and I do mean _now._"

"Then this is where we part ways my friends. Take care." Thor said, clasping Hawkeye on the shoulder.

"You too."

"Shit, my suit isn't ready yet. JARVIS—!"

"Chillax, I've got you Stark." Darcy said, finding his last name rolling off of her tongue so much easier than the other since everyone around here seemed to be on a last-name basis. She was surprised nobody was calling her Lewis; maybe that would come later once they realized she wasn't out to kill them or destroy the world. "I think I can keep us all alive if we hit dead space."

"You think? That's real comforting."

Darcy grinned at him before turning her gaze to Steve and Clint, "Adiós muchachos."

Barely getting the thought out of her head that she wanted herself, Thor and Tony to appear near the shard that she could feel, Darcy was hit with a blast of cold so intense it rocked her back onto her heels, cutting through every fiber of cloth and digging down into her skin like a million tiny needles. She could hear Tony curse at the same time as her, all of them looking around to find an icy wasteland stretching out to every side. Wind whipped at the steel-colored landscape, snow and plumes of loosened ice riding the currents like rushing ghosts. Everywhere she looked was frost and snow, no single spot of green or brown in sight. Even the sky looked like gray slush. Nothing seemed to be alive.

"Jotunheim." Thor said, answering the unspoken question.

Darcy willed her skin to be impervious to the cold, the effect instant as warmth returned to her nose and ears and cheeks. "Yeah well Jotunheim or the North Pole I don't care. That rock is close so let's go. Either of you need something to get rid of the cold?" She added the last as an afterthought when they started moving in the direction she led them.

"Not I."

"Recirculating body heat. I'm good, but if you still want a cuddle later let me know."

They didn't have long to walk before Darcy stopped and her eyebrows pinched together into a frown. She turned in a slow circle, first looking up to the empty slate-gray sky, then at the frozen ground. She fell to a knee and smoothed her fingers across the ice, the cold barely registering against her skin. She could feel the shard, it was incredibly close, so where the hell was it?

"You lose it?" Stark asked with a yell as the wind picked up and howled around them.

"No, it's here." She answered back, looking up at them a second later. "I just don't know _where_ exactly."

"Perhaps there is a cave beneath us." Thor suggested, and Darcy grinned at his brilliance.

"God, you freaking genius you! Of course there has to be a cave. Duh Darcy." She rolled her eyes and stood, and before either of them could make another remark she moved them down to the space below, even going so far as to will a bubble of empty space around them—and fingers crossed that it worked—just in case there wasn't anything but solid rock down there.

They landed inside of an open area a heartbeat later, the darkness around them so complete that the only thing she could see was the glow coming from Stark's suit. She smiled, letting the bubble go before declaring, "Let there be light!" and wishing for an old school torch to appear in her hand; like seriously old school, we're talking medieval wooden-base shit here with pitched soaked cloth at the top. Darcy had a romantic side off and on, and seriously, how many opportunities would she ever have to use something like this?

There was a lot to see in those first few seconds of orange-glow light. The cave surrounding them was dome shaped, the walls white and solid, glossy ice that reflected the flickering flames of her torch. There was also a patch of luscious green grass growing a few feet ahead of them, several beautiful flowers even sprouting up between the blades and a sapling reaching toward the ceiling from the center. That was where the shard was, no doubt about that. The most unusual thing in the cave however wasn't the oddity of grass growing where it couldn't; no, the real eye-opener there was Thor's little brother Loki, standing on the grass with his hand stretched out. He'd stopped mid-movement to turn and stare at them, surprise plastered all across his face.

"Loki." Thor was the first to speak, his deep voice booming with a mixture of shock, joy and suspicion. It was a lot to pack into one word, but somehow he managed it. Action exploded a second later.

His expression falling into a sneer full of contempt, Loki turned away from them and continued his reach for the shard. Darcy wasn't having any of that though, no F-ing way. Before she even realized or understood what she was doing, only knowing that she wanted Loki away from the gem, she willed him to the left and by god it happened. Loki's body was pushed to the side as if some giant hand had swatted him away, his body smashing into the side of the cave and sending slivers of ice shooting out from the force of his collision.

Darcy was sure that either Thor or Stark had said something to her after that, but her mind and attention was fully focused on the gem. It was only a few, long strides away or a single teleportation. She made her first step, ready to teleport in the next, but before she could her attention was pulled to the left as Loki appeared outside of the crater he'd formed, a long golden staff in his hand that hadn't been there before and a look of pure fury contorting his features. There wasn't any time after that to react before a light, bright and hot like the sun, flashed, and Darcy felt her body fly backward, her chest on fire and the air knocked out of her lungs. She felt the impact of her back against the curved wall before she slid to the floor in a crumpled heap.

The world around grew dimmer then, flashes of movement and dim orange light creating a nightmarish dance of shadows. Darcy was dazed, and that was an understatement. She could hear the clash of metal against metal clanging through the cave, but the sound was muffled behind the rush of blood in her ears. Somebody shouted. She could hear her heart beating. Her chest was still burning from whatever Loki had thrown her way, so she looked down, a little curious about the pain that was throbbing in time with her heart. Her chest was covered in red, and Darcy frowned, wondering how that had happened. She reached for it and realized as the warmth soaked her fingers that it was blood; her blood; she was injured. She was dying. _No._ Darcy shook her head and lifted her eyes, trying to focus on the movements ahead of her. _No I'm so not dying like this dammit. _ She coughed, and the copper taste of blood filled her mouth. _No!_

Darcy refused to give up, refused to go down like this, refused to let it end here. With a cry of rage and frustration she fought past the desire to sleep and willed her wound to close. She wasn't going down without a fucking fight; no way, no how. This wound would close and she _would_ get to her goddamn feet! With a groan, her body so weary it was a battle in itself just to move, Darcy climbed to her feet. There was no more pain, only a deep rooted exhaustion that made her crabbier than ever. She held onto that feeling and the corner of her mouth curled up at the thought of revenge. _Time for a little retribution motherfucker._

"Hey Loki!" She called out in a sing-song voice, interrupting the fight going on in front of her. Even as they all paused to look she wished for an exact replica of Loki's staff. It appeared in her hand at the same time, and when she felt the cool metal under her finger tips she asked, "how 'bout a taste of your own medicine?" Then she fired the staff at him.

Not surprisingly, Loki was fast. Before the blast of whatever the hell kind of energy she just shot reached him, he teleported away from the line of fire, appearing within reach of the shard again. He seemed, just then, to decide getting it was more important than fighting his brother or her, so he started to grab for it again, but Darcy was fast too. She shot at him for a second time, only for the energy to move around him, like he had his own bubble of protection, but somehow she'd anticipated something wily like that and had already made congruent plans. Using her other hand—because she just couldn't seem to get it out of her head that hand-waving was necessary for 'magic'—Darcy pointed at the ground in front of the shard and sent a spine of rock up from the ground to block his path. His hand smashed against the rock as Darcy willed his protective shielding away, the last vestiges of golden energy dissipating within the area around him. This seemed to clue Thor in because not even a hairbreadth of a second later Mjölnir came flying forward, straight at Loki's back.

As if he'd sensed it, Loki spun out of the way with a snarl of anger, Tony shooting off a blast from his hand then to keep the demi-god moving since Darcy was actively concentrating on keeping him defenseless. His eyes met with hers for a second after that, the heat in his stare taking her breath away before his lip curled up in anger and he seemed to reevaluate the situation as a lost cause. He vanished then, and at the same time the cave began to rumble, chucks of frozen rock falling from the ceiling as the ground beneath them heaved. That asshole was bringing the cave down!

The world around Darcy seemed to slow down as she made the decision to rush for the shard before getting them out. Stupid? Probably, but she wasn't giving this one up. She rushed forward, long running strides taking her to the sapling with only a single breath spent. She jumped for it as a heavy mass of ice fell down to the right of her, a spray of icy pebbles and freezing dust smacking her cheek. Her fingers curled around the piece of gem, hot and wonderful against her skin. She could have stopped moving then to relish the victory and enjoy her prize, but Thor called for her then, shaking her out of the momentary revelry.

"We must go now!" His voice barely registered above a whisper behind the rumbling of stone.

Darcy twirled around to face them again. The flickering fire of her fallen torch revealed a small pocket of hell. The ceiling was falling and the walls were crumbling forward while the ground underfoot started to crack. Tony's suit was scorched and scratched, his helmet missing entirely while Thor's hair hung in wild strands around his face, a large gash tearing across his cheek as blood dripped down along his jawline. She'd never seen him bleed like that before, not since New Mexico, and even then he hadn't been all _godly_ yet. The sight was unsettling, and it made her hesitate for a moment. What was she getting them into?

Another cracking of ice filled the chamber, the sound echoing through her head like lightening and spurring her into action. Darcy stepped toward them, teleporting closer just before lunging at them. It probably wasn't necessary to be in physical contact to move them with her, but it made the act feel more solid and real, more _sure._ With her hands on them both she willed them out of the collapsing space, off of the alien planet and back to the training room they'd left behind. She wasn't sure what sort of harrowing experiences were next on her list or who else would get hurt during the journey—she couldn't get Thor's bleeding face out of head—but as they landed on the floor with a pile of frozen stones and a cloud of dissipating frost, Darcy was just glad it didn't end under the weight of Jotunheim's ice.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

So I'll try not to let the next update take so long, but I'm in the process of moving right now so there may be some more delays. As always, please feel free to point out any breaks in character, errors, or plot holes, but I sincerely hope there aren't too many.

I was actually really concerned with this chapter. It just didn't want to come out, although I'd been planning it for a while, so I wasn't sure if there was a problem with pacing or if the issue was just in my head. I hope it was okay though, especially the fight scene at the end there. I don't do a lot of action/fight scenes in my writing so I'm not sure if it came out well or not.

At any rate, thanks so much for your continued support, and thank you to everyone who has left me a review. They're really wonderful and I can't tell you how much more it inspires me to write when I know it's not just for myself XD

Thanks again for reading!


End file.
